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by OfficialHermitsUnited



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Original Character(s), Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Severus Snape Lives, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, fast burn slow build, shameless self insert OC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:47:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24054646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfficialHermitsUnited/pseuds/OfficialHermitsUnited
Summary: “Your aura has changed. Tell me, did you touch during the interview, even by accident?”Severus looked up at Dumbledore sharply, hackles raising.“You cannot ignore magic like this forever, Severus, it will consume you. If you answer the call in time you can temper it, keep it from being discovered by people who would use it against you. Furthermore, it will avoid a scandal at headquarters when she is driven to distraction and cleaves Black in two for making a disparaging remark about you.”
Relationships: Severus Snape/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 71





	1. The Bathtub Scene

The day had been difficult, tedious and physically exhausting. She was so tired she was asleep before her head hit the pillow and slept hard until she needed the bathroom. Stumbling, leaning against the wall she made her shaky overtaxed legs carry her into the small room and back out to the sink. Her eyes never opened, she knew her homes layout well enough not to need sight to guide her, but when she was going back to her bedroom the floor gave her pause. 

There was no linoleum, her sock covered feet felt like wood was under her, and she looked down through hazy, sleep filled eyes at the dark stained wooden flooring. It took her a long moment of deliberation to look up at the sink she’d just used. It was a large stainless steel sink, set into fine old looking wooden cabinets. Not hers at all. 

She rubbed at her eyes and looked over to a man at the kitchen table who was the epitome of the phrase “deer in the headlights” dressed in odd clothes with a drink halfway to his mouth. He looked oddly familiar but she couldn’t quite compute who he was in the middle of the shock and panic building in her. Her legs were giving out from standing on them too long and she staggered into the table, sitting awkwardly on the edge of a chair to keep from falling to the floor. 

She felt her head begin to throb and she laid it down on the table for a moment to rest her eyes, feeling herself pass out while the man across from her darted out into the doorway shouting something. 

Everything was hazy and dull, the throbbing in her legs a constant against the confusion of the smells and sounds coming in at odd intervals. She dreamt of what happened, only everything was off, somehow, like she wasn’t really there. The man in her dream couldn’t have been who was really at the table. That was the dream part. All of it must have been one. 

Someone was laying an ice pack on her legs, numbing the pain while the extreme cold stung her nerves. 

“Sorry, it will feel better soon, dear,” said an unfamiliar voice. 

She drifted off again, sleeping hard until she was awoken by a door opening and closing near her. It was dark in the room and she squinted to see who was with her. 

“I see you’re awake. You were suffering from exhaustion sickness and your leg muscles were inflamed. We remedied all that, don’t you worry. What we are most curious about is how you got here.” His eyes were twinkling over his half-moon spectacles, a good natured smile on his face. 

“Where am I?” she whispered, not liking how thin the walls seemed to be. 

“A safe house in London, a very secret one at that. We don’t get unexpected visitors, you see,” he sat down in a chair next to the bed and opened the curtain a bit more so she could see him properly. Her first thought was Gandalf the White with better fashion sense, but then it dawned on her internally. Oh shit. She glanced down at his hands; both were intact. 

She fell back into the bed looking up at the rafters of the ceiling. 

“Oh, I see,” she breathed out. 

“That is not what you were hoping it would be?” 

“No.” 

“If you tell me who you are and what’s happened, I may be able to provide you with some clarity.” 

“I shouldn’t go by my given name. Call me Anne. I don’t know how I got here, and I don’t know what happened. I worked on my house yesterday or whenever it was and overdid it, and I passed out in bed, got up for the bathroom and when I washed my hands I guess I got here? That’s when I opened my eyes to see the kitchen. It was May of the year 2020,” she told him, sitting up against the wall to ease her neck strain. The anxiety was gnawing at her already, blossoming like a thunderstorm in her chest. 

“That’s a long time in the future. Longer, I think, than you’ve been alive,” Dumbledore speculated. 

“It’s the nineties?” she shot up and looked at him in horror. 

“Yes. The second of June, 1995 to be precise.”

“‘95? Jesus Christ, what am I doing in 1995?” she grumbled, rubbing at her eyes and combing her fingers through her hair. 

“I should tell you something we discovered attempting to treat your leg injuries. We had to resort to using physical ice instead of magic because it seems you are impervious to it in all forms.”

Anne stared at him through her fingers looking shell shocked, hands dropping into her lap.

“That’s interesting. So no harm and no help either? Am I sick? Or do I have something on me that’s making it happen?” 

“No, you’re more of a magical dead spot. Your physical being does not interact with magic at all, it simply stops where you begin.”

“Well then. Um, sir, what’s the plan? Am I staying here?” 

“Well we cannot allow you to leave. You have apparently also been made a secret keeper of this house by the magic that admitted you here. You know the location of this place and could potentially share it with others in a way it’s members cannot, meaning you are a serious breach in security.” 

“I don’t have anywhere else to be,” she sighed. 

“I’m sure they’ll have something for you to do. The Order, the organization we run through this house, is working on making it livable. I must apologize in advance, we don’t believe you to be a threat, however you will have to answer some questions for my interrogator to ensure your trustworthiness. Not now, of course, he should be by tomorrow. I shall leave you to it then.”

“Thank you, Headmaster.”

He stopped on his way out the door and looked back at her over his spectacles. “Don’t give too much away at once, Miss Anne. Let them introduce themselves at least.” 

She blinked, watching him go. Well _fuck_.

* * *

The day passed in a blur of napping and worry, mingled with a million questions she had. She was hypothesizing about how she ended up in that bed, how she wasn’t touchable through magical means, how the whole thing felt like a nightmare or a fantasy but she couldn’t wake up from it. 

Someone left her food when she slept at some point and she ate it happily, not caring that it might make her miserable later. The room was surprisingly connected to a bathroom with a full claw footed bathtub. She supposed no one would bother her if she had a bath to ease the ache in her legs and found some Epsom salts under the sink that would do nicely. 

She staggered about, legs forced straight by the pain of moving them, and gingerly made it into the tub without drowning herself by accident. 

The bath water was almost too hot but not quite, allowing her to massage her aching muscles gently. Someone came into the bedroom and shut the door behind them, calling out for her. 

“Hello?” 

“I’m in here.” 

She sat up and leaned over the side of the tub to preserve some of her modesty and was rewarded by the sight of someone very important walk through the door carelessly. He stopped and turned about immediately, and she smiled at the glimpse of shock and embarrassment on his face. 

Her heart stopped for a moment and then began to beat in earnest like a bird caught in her rib cage. She could hardly hear anything over it pounding in her ears, and she couldn't catch her breath. 

She heard herself begin to speak, belatedly. 

“Hello, don’t be shy. You must be the interrogator?” she began in surprise. 

“I- yes. I am.” 

“I’m Anne. Sorry I didn’t know you were coming just now or I’d be more presentable. You're welcome to have a seat, I’m just soaking my muscles.” The water splashed against the sides loudly when she shifted nervously. 

“You’re hurt?”

“No not quite. Just overdid it, is all.”

“I should come back later-“ he was fidgeting madly. 

“Listen, it’s fine. If I was worried about it I would have said. If you want to sit out next to the door and talk I can deal,” she kept her tone as even as possible, not daring to act on the impulse to flirt with him. 

He closed the door slightly and she heard the chair scrape across the floor, and squeak when he sat on it. 

“Ahem. Well,” he started, “my name is Professor Severus Snape. I’m here on behalf of the Order of the Phoenix to interview you on the subject of your arrival.”

As he spoke he seemed to settle into the role more, taking the reigns back from being so off put. 

“Sure.”

“What is your name?”

“You can call me Anne.”

“But that is not your given name?”

“I prefer not to involve my family. They’re halfway around the world living their lives. Why I may do here could get them killed.”

“You intend to make enemies?”

“I think it’s the other way around. If you do the right thing, people who don’t want it done are always there to protest and have their revenge.”

“And what is the right thing?”

“Boy, I could debate you for days on that. Depends.”

“Hmph. Do you have any reason to believe you were sent here on purpose?”

“No. I’m not special like that. I’m a boring normal person who works at a hotel at night and has too many pets.”

“Where in the United States did you live?”

“North Carolina.The Appalachia’s, more specifically.”

“And you grew up there.”

“My whole life.”

“You worked at a hotel?”

“For a few years, yes. Made it into management recently.”

“Any hobbies or special talents?”

“Besides getting myself into trouble? I went to college for literary analysis and learned some Japanese while I was there. I’m not an expert on anything, more of a jack of all trades type. I can learn and adapt to whatever needs to be done in order to get by, and then when I have to I improvise.”

“You were working on the roof of your home when you came by your leg… issue.”

“Yes. I lost some shingles in a storm, had to get them replaced, only I kept forgetting things I needed and went up and down the ladder a few dozen times too many.”

“Would you say you are forgetful?”

“Mmm. My short term memory is awful. My long term memory about things that are not personally traumatic is fantastic.”

“I see. Well. What are your goals for your time here?”

She paused. It was hard to fight through the fog of infatuation to get at a decent answer. Basic information was wrote, thinking was simply out of the question. The bath water was getting cold, so she drained it and got out, toweling off next to the door. 

“I think, since I’m betting I can’t get home and I can’t leave this house, that I’ll probably start by helping the running of the place, get it up to better standards, and then try to be useful where I can. I’ll need to get an identity at some point, or marry into the commonwealth so I can have a job and healthcare. From what I can figure the Order is fighting a guerrilla war against an up and coming fascist power, right?” 

Silence from the other room for a moment. “Yes, that would be an accurate summation. It’s in its earliest stages, of espionage and planning of course.” 

“Hm. I may try to get involved in that. I was supportive of the anti-fascist movement at home, and I’m apparently impervious to magic so I could make a decent human shield if need be.”

When she walked out into the bedroom in a robe he was staring at her in shock. 

“You can’t be serious.”

“Headmaster Dumbledore told me himself. I was just as surprised as you are.” She walked past him to the closet and rifled through the assortment of garments inside. 

“Also what do you do here, Professor?” Anne asked, standing far enough inside the closet to be hidden from view while she managed to get something on.

“I’m a potions master. I supply the Order with whatever they need.” 

“And?”

“Excuse me?”

“No one is ever just one thing. You don’t strike me as a one hit wonder, I’d bet you have more talents than just brewing.”

When she stepped out of the closet in a blue robe, brushing at her wet hair, he had stood silently and was not a foot from her. 

His eyes were cold and he didn’t seem to take well to her comment. Her thrumming heartbeat returned. 

“Just what are you getting at, madam?”

“I don’t mean to insult you and if I have I’m sorry. I’m sure you brew excellently,” she told him sincerely, arms dropping to her side. 

“Did you plan to be in the bath when I arrived to skew the results of the interview?”

“No, an appointment wasn’t made and I don’t have a clock in here. You’ll have to blame the Headmaster for the timing. Really, it was only a compliment.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Your face is still flushed. I’m wearing clothes, so it’s not embarrassment. Have you been feeling well today?”

“Stop trying to change the subject.”

“No, Professor I did not begin my day with the intention of being walked in upon while I was in the bathtub, and no I’m not trying to skew the results. Let me feel your forehead.”

“Excuse me?”

Before he could object she already had the back of her hand on his forehead then moved it to his cheek for a moment, looking to the side to avert what she was sure were her massively wide pupils. Her heart was going wild emotionally with the touch, little electric pulses shooting through her fingers. 

“I think you have a low grade fever. If you need to come back to finish the interview then I can wait until you feel better. If you’re cross from being feverish that would definitely skew the results.”

He grabbed her hand off his face and held it tightly for a moment. Her blood was boiling. 

“The interview is over. Dinner was almost ready when I was on my way up.” He released her hand, brushed past her and went out into the hallway easily in a few strides. 

Anne was glad to be left alone because she was shaking like a leaf. She landed in the chair where he had sat, still warm. He had been so close to her and she was sure he would have been intimidating if his scent hadn’t been so distracting. What in the world was going on? He was by no means being kind or amenable, showed no social grace that would spark anyone else to like him. She went into the bathroom and made to put water on her face to calm her down but when she went to look in the mirror something caught her eye on her collarbone, hidden mostly by the robes hem. She pulled it aside to reveal the odd looking mark on her skin with a faint dying glow. 

She pulled herself together and walked out of the door carefully, remembering the portrait on the wall that was sure to start shrieking insults if she woke it up. The hallways were poorly lit and she squinted in the half-light to make it to the landing. The chandelier was blessedly lit over the foyer, and she made her way to the bottom of the staircase, attracting the attention of a few people talking near a doorway to the rear of the house. 

She paid them no mind, smiling politely when she passed a few of the unfamiliar faces and went into the kitchens where she had originally appeared in the new reality she was facing. 

A red headed woman was working over the stove, a dutch oven boiling with a wonderful smelling stew inside and homemade bread sitting on the table in hearty slices. 

Two teenage girls sat at the table, one a pale freckled ginger, the other a dark skinned girl with a mane of tight curls pulled back in a poofy ponytail. 

The woman at the stove turned just in time to see her and smile, walking over to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Anne was so surprised by this she could hardly speak. 

“My goodness you gave us quite a fright, young lady. I was so worried you wouldn’t know which way was up when you finally came awake but you seem like you’ve figured it out quite well. I’m Molly Weasley, this is my daughter Ginny, and her friend from school Hermione Granger.”

Molly ushered her over to a seat across from them and went back to cooking. 

“Headmaster Dumbledore tells us you’re called Anne?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Oh and you’ve got manners! Better than my lot I’m sure, not that I didn’t do my best of course. I’ve got six sons and Ginny is my youngest and only daughter.” 

“Nice to meet you all,” she said quietly. 

“What year in school are you in, Anne?” Ginny asked conversationally. 

“Oh, I uh, graduated college already. I’m 23.” 

“You’re joking.”

“No. I have - well, _had_ a job and a home,” Anne told her sheepishly. 

“You look so young, I thought you’d be a sixth year for sure,” Ginny exclaimed. 

“You went to muggle college?” Hermione wondered, brow furrowed. 

“Yes, I guess I am a muggle. Or I was. I still don’t know what’s happened to me so there’s no telling,” Anne muttered. 

“What was it like, going to American muggle school? Is it anything like the movies?” Hermione piped up.

Anne laughed at that. “I didn’t go to normal high school, but it was close enough in some ways I guess. I only had a class of 23 by graduation so there wasn’t a lot of room for cliques. We were the outcasts, creative types and nerds from all the local schools so we had our own thing going.” 

“Was it a boarding school?” Ginny asked.

“Oh no, I wish. I rode the bus home every day and had to deal with my parents.” 

Another person came in, a man who might have been handsome once, and sat down at the table as well, snatching a piece of bread before Molly could see. 

“You must be the one that sent Snape out in such a hurry. Oh, he was furious!” he laughed. 

“I don’t think he liked me.” 

“Professor Snape doesn’t like anyone,” Ginny told her under her breath, out of her mothers hearing. 

“Oh now Sirius leave poor Severus alone, he’s got enough on his plate,” Molly chided him. 

“You’re Anne, then, aren’t you? I’m Sirius Black, this is my old family home,” he told her cheerfully. 

“Nice to meet you. Thank you for letting me stay here.”

“Oh don’t worry about that. You’re American? Now that’s something we don’t have yet. How are you liking England?”

“I’ve only seen it from the inside of this house so I don’t have much of an opinion on that yet.”

“Well after this is all over I’m sure you’ll get to see the grass again. I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw it.” 

“Are you being confined as well?”

“For my own safety, they assure me,” he grumbled, picking apart the piece of bread. 

“I’m being confined as a breach in security,” she told him unhappily. 

“They couldn’t just _obliviate_ you and send you on your way?”

“No, it’s not that easy. I wish it was, I’d love to go home.” 

“Where did you come from, anyways? I wasn’t awake when the commotion happened but I heard from a few of the people present you walked out of the pantry and passed out on the table here.”

“That’s all I can remember, I was at home sleeping off some housework and then I was here.”

“Well, if anyone knows how to handle all of this it’ll be the Headmaster,” Molly told her with finality. 

Hermione was looking at her quizzically. “Why can’t they wipe your memory? If you’re a muggle and you shouldn’t see the inside of the Order house or even be able to get in, then it should be easy,” she reasoned.

“But what if, in coming here, I became something that wasn’t a muggle at all, magically speaking. I mean I’m not a witch, I don’t have magic the way you do, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have magical qualities that make it possible to be here.” 

Hermione's eyes narrowed in thought for a moment more. “I’ve never read anything to do with people like that. Though I’m sure Hogwarts wouldn’t carry very many books on the subject, maybe the library at the Ministry would have something about it.” 

“I take it you read a lot, then?” 

“Oh all of the time,” Ginny told her heartily, “Hermione won’t put down a book for much besides food and sleep, and sometimes not even then.” 

Hermione swatted at Ginny playfully, Ginny giggling the whole time. 

Through the door came another pair of gingers, identical in every way. 

“Fred be careful with that!”

In an instant, Fred, who was using his wand to levitate a cutting board and knife with a load of peeled and halved potatoes floating in behind him, flicked his wand in the wrong direction and sent the knife flying towards Hermione’s chest. Anne reached out instinctively to block it and the blade clattered harmlessly off her palm. 

The room was dead silent. 

Feeling the intensity of the stares on her and the panic rising in her chest, Anne immediately stood and walked out quickly, pushing past the onlookers in the doorway. Her room couldn’t be close enough as she closed it tight and sat down on her bed, sobbing in confusion. 

She stared at her hand, wiling it to bleed or at least appear to have been harmed but it was pristine, skin unbroken. She had hardly felt anything except the push from the force of the blade hitting her and bouncing right off. The tears were running hot and thick down her cheeks, clouding her sight, and she couldn’t draw breath but to sob a little more. Someone came into the room and closed the door behind them, walking right up to her and enveloping her in a hug. 

“I’m sorry,” Anne cried, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” 

“Don’t be silly you saved my life. Mrs. Weasley is down there giving Fred the dressing down of his life, I think. Nobody’s angry with you, Anne.” 

“You didn’t see their faces,” she breathed when Hermione stepped back, wiping at her face with her sleeve. “I spent my whole childhood being made fun of for being different and weird. I have tried so hard, and I thought for a minute I did it, I finally made myself as normal as possible and people wouldn’t stare at me anymore like I’m some kind of freak and here we are,” she sniffed, “back to square one.” 

Apparently Hermione had begun to cry too and hugged her again. “You’ll get through, I’m sure of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it, please let me know by sending Kudos and leaving a comment, even if it's just to say hello!


	2. Signed, Sealed and Delivered

Meeting her had been a disaster. He couldn’t get the image of her out of his head, sitting meekly in the tub, watching him barge in like an utter buffoon. Her long brown hair had been wet, pushed back out of her face. Her skin was flushed pink from the warmth of the water and she was leaning over the rim, smiling at him. Her eyes were hazel, green and brown like a forest, peering up at him inquisitively.  
Had he not had his Occlumency training to fall back on he would have been helpless to sit there and hear her voice caress his ear, somehow making him feel like he was the naked one and not her. He was able to ignore the worst of it, his heart racing and his breath quickening, but she lingered in the back of his mind for hours afterwards.  
Her answers to his questions were made a mental note of, and he had little trouble making out her meaning despite her ridiculous accent. She seemed positively harmless, despite being an anomaly he couldn’t place in the grand scheme of things. He had been there when she walked blindly out of the pantry in the kitchen, stumbling around looking for who knew what, but he had only been concerned for her welfare then, never really seeing her.  
Then, she had bloody sauntered round to the closet in front of him, the smell of her bath salts clouding his mind, and dressed - dressed! - in the room while he was left to sit there helplessly. His feet had moved of their own accord to get closer to her, but he came to his senses just in time for her to move back into his line of sight, blessedly clothed.  
He should have never grabbed her hand. He was trying to call her bluff, flush her out into the open so he could see her true identity but no attempts at Legilimency worked, likely accounted for by her inability to be affected by magic, when it happened. She was touching his face without permission, something no one but his own mother had done, and he couldn’t take the onslaught of electrifying pulses her fingers left behind, so he went for her sleeved wrist, but grabbed her bare hand instead. It took all of his strength to resist the temptation to caress it, and he made an exit as quickly as possible. He could barely concentrate on her words, saying he felt like he was feverish. Oh he was warm, alright, but not from any ailment.  
He had gone home directly, shedding his clothes to get rid of her scent and took a cold shower to calm himself down. His face still held the feeling of the light pressure of her fingers for an hour or more, and he looked in the mirror for any visual trace of it, but instead discovered a strange mark on himself. Just below his collarbone was a faintly glowing shape, no larger than a fingernail, slowly fading as he examined it.  
It was impossible, he told himself, it must be a coincidence, but the logical part of his brain told him that she was an outlier and the only thing that had changed for anything significant to happen. He dressed to meet the Headmaster and put it out of his mind, somewhat unsuccessfully.  
He recounted his thoughts on her answers without any hesitation, almost pleased with himself when was done.  
“I don’t think she poses any immediate threat to the Order, Headmaster. She seems perfectly sane, and besides her unusual circumstances and abilities, completely unremarkable.” They sat in the Headmasters Office at Hogwarts, having tea, and in the case of the Headmaster, lemon drops as well.  
“Oh I’m sure she has some remarkable quality we have yet to uncover. I didn’t introduce myself when I met her as she first woke up, but I believe she knew exactly who I was,” Dumbledore stirred his tea thoughtfully.  
“That is unusual. I couldn’t discern any lie, even without Legilimency to prove it except when she gave her name.”  
“I wouldn’t worry about her name for now. If she has family to protect elsewhere then they should stay protected and anonymous. Merlin knows we cannot all say the same about our own. Severus, you seem different, today. What seems to be troubling you, my boy?”  
“Nothing, sir. A summer cold perhaps, but nothing more.”  
“Your aura has changed. Tell me, did you touch during the interview, even by accident?”  
Severus looked up at him sharply, hackles raising.  
“You cannot ignore magic like this forever, Severus, it will consume you. If you answer the call in time you can temper it, keep it from being discovered by people who would use it against you. Furthermore, it will avoid a scandal at headquarters when she is driven to distraction and cleaves Black in two for making a disparaging remark about you,” Dumbledore watched him seriously over his half moon spectacles.  
“I wouldn’t stop that for the world, Headmaster and you know it,” Severus nearly smiled. “I am already bound to service. I cannot afford any distractions.”  
“If you allow this call to go unanswered the consequences could be far more noticeable to interested parties.”  
Severus sighed and sat his empty cup down forcefully on the table next to his chair.  
“And what do you suggest, Headmaster? That I sully that poor girl's reputation and soul for the sake of a moment of personal respite?”  
“Do you think so little of yourself that your attention would be her doom? That’s a little melodramatic.”  
Severus sneered at him and crossed his arms over his chest petulantly. “It’s not melodramatic to think that shackling some innocent to the death and bloodshed of my life’s path would be the ruin of her.”  
“Who is to say that is not the path hers would have gone anyways?” Dumbledore reasoned.  
“I take it that there is no changing your opinion on the subject,” Severus sighed in defeat.  
“I’m sure you’ll get along wonderfully.”  
“Famous last words.”  
Dumbledore’s chuckle followed him out into the hallway as he left.  
As Severus was making his way to his office to pick up the last of the mail that had been diverted there he felt a sudden jolt of intense emotions: embarrassment, fear, confusion, all consuming anxiety, and eventually sorrow. He was able to take control of his own reactions and act as a bystander to the incoming information, concentrating on closing off the connection. When he tried, it felt like part of himself, as if he were trying to cut off his own arm, so he did his best to contain the worst of it so he wouldn’t be blindsided again. He had felt her, as strongly as if they were his own emotions, amplified through the soul bond connection he wanted so badly to ignore.  
He hardly slept that night, mulling over the complexity of the situation and how he would need to approach it to work it to his advantage. The way his senses tended to leave him in the middle of it made it harder to guess how the conversation would turn. Reviewing the interaction it had been obvious visually that she felt the effects of the bond as well. Her skin had been flushed just as his had, eyes taking on a sultry look every time she thought he wasn’t paying attention. Her breathing had been mostly unchecked, chest rising and falling quickly when he had gotten closer to her. This ‘Anne’ seemed to have her own agenda, though it was likely benign in nature, he did not like to be without knowledge of the motivations of others. He couldn’t afford a misstep if she was more dangerous than she let on. Her odd powers made the situation more delicate as he was uncertain as to how they would manifest further.  
He resolved to visit her again and see what he could glean from the conversation. 

The following Thursday he was back for an Order meeting that evening, and managed to catch her in the library afterwards. She was curled up on the sofa near the window reading what appeared to be Hogwarts: A History.  
Anne looked up almost as soon as he entered the room and went back to reading, leaving him to roam the stacks and get glimpses of her through the gaps. Her brow furrowed slightly while she read and she was worrying her lip into plump, tender morsels.  
He had a hard time looking away when she paused to stretch, the throw blanket falling away from her torso while her thin nightgown was pulled taught across her chest.  
He finally got the nerve to say something, and approached her carefully, letting her notice him first.  
She looked up at him and closed the book on her finger. “Hey.”  
Her smile made his stomach do somersaults, which he ignored. “Good evening.”  
“What brings you to this neck of the woods?”  
“The Order just met down stairs. I see you’ve settled in.”  
Awful start. God, why could he not speak to her plainly?  
“Oh I’d hardly call it that. They don’t talk to me unless they have to, and I can’t stand to eat at the table with everyone else because all they do is sit in silence and stare at me when they think I’m not looking.”  
Anger flared up in him, his own in this instance. How dare they? As if she had wronged them in some way.  
“How are you able to eat?”  
“Leftovers mostly. Mrs. Weasley makes sure I get a plate worth set aside, not that it's always something I can eat.”  
“No one has approached you about dietary restrictions?” he asked incredulously.  
“Um. No?” she told him meekly.  
Internally he was seething. While he had no objective reason to be so cross, he couldn’t help but want to stand up for her well being.  
“I see. Well. That shall have to be remedied. Was there some reason that they’ve made you into a pariah?”  
“I was at the dinner table last week and someone threw a knife and it bounced off me. Everyone was staring at me like I was a freak,” she grumbled, sorrowful.  
The event surely coincided with his episode at Hogwarts.  
“You’re not a freak,” he blurted out in indignation, and then shut his mouth quickly.  
She looked up at him thankfully with a small smile, eyes sparkling, and he thought he might pass out. Surely there was a limit to how much he could take in a day?  
“Tell me, we’re there any identifying marks on your person from this incident?” he asked to distract from the odd comment.  
“No, I had a weird mark on my collarbone show up but nothing when the knife thing happened,” she gestured to the place on her chest, identical to the placement on his.  
He turned and waded through a few sections of books, happy to have a reprieve to get himself together, and came upon the one he was most interested in, Galman’s Identifying Marks and Meanings. He pulled it off the shelf and flipped to the chapter index, satisfied that it contained the correct information. If she was half as sharp as he’d hoped she was she would surely take the hint and figure it out on her own. While soul bonds were not entirely common they were hardly rare; Arthur and Molly Weasley were a notable example of a bonded pair.  
“You may find this useful. It’s not unusual for a magical interaction to show itself in the form of a mark.”  
“Thank you so much,” she told him sincerely. When she took the book from him their hands brushed and she blushed, looking away from him. His mouth went dry and he felt his hands get clammy, thinking of an exit.  
“I shall take my leave then, good night,” he turned abruptly and made for the door.  
“Oh, thank you. Good night!” she called after him as he fled home. 

Anne stayed up all night in the library researching, cross referencing as best as she could with other materials (ones that would met her touch them, of course) and was struck dumb by the final verdict.  
Mrs. Weasley found her there, staring at the pages in pure disbelief.  
“Why, Anne whatever is the matter, dear?”  
“I’m soul bonded,” she whispered, not daring to speak any louder lest they be overheard.  
“Really? You got the mark?” she asked excitedly, leaning in over the books scattered across the table to keep it down.  
“Yes. I looked in everything I could find and it’s the only explanation for what’s happening to me. I thought I was going mad.”  
“Oh, so you’ve just met the fellow here then?”  
“Yes.”  
“Well congratulations, you know my Arthur and I found out we had a soul bond right after I turned seventeen, got married the next year. It’s been everything I could have asked for, and so will yours, you’ll see!” she gushed excitedly.  
“I don’t think he wants me,” Anne told her, looking up in sorrow.  
“Oh that’s nonsense, he had to have the capacity to care for you in the first place for the bond to form,” Mrs. Weasley consoled her.  
“You should see the way he takes off every time we talk. It’s like the hounds of hell are after him,” Anne added.  
“I’m sure there’s more to it than that. Sometimes it takes some encouragement to get a man to admit his feelings especially if he’s naturally tight lipped. I bet if you pick a fight with him and make him think you’re at odds he’ll make a case for himself. You’ll see, works every time.”  
“That’s… very cunning of you.”  
“Men think they have the upper hand all the time, sometimes it’s best to let them believe it so they’re too focused on that to realize they were never in control in the first place,” she winked at Anne, patted her on the back, and left.  
Several things began to fall into place in her mind. Every touch, every look, every time he even looked in her direction she felt like she had been set fire to. His voice, his half smile that she wasn’t meant to see, everything about him had been driving her insane since she’d lain eyes on him the first time. He would flee her presence afterwards, but now she knew he was equally overwrought and likely just as anxious.  
She was struck with a bolt of equal parts fear and excitement at the prospect, and if he felt the same surely he would come around?  
She finally felt like she could sleep and went to her room to pass out in the bed. 

Severus stole into Anne’s room quietly and shut the door behind him so as not to draw attention to his actions from unwanted eyes.  
She poked her head out to see him, looking perplexed, and went back to turn the water off. He could feel the effects of her presence on him again, not so intense as the first time, while his heart was definitely pulsing harder in his chest.  
“Hello.”  
“How did you find your reading?”  
“Informative, though it gave way to more questions than I had when I first picked it up. You could have told me what was happening yourself, you know.”  
He tried to start, and stopped, placing a hand over his mouth, looking down at the floor for a moment to compose himself.  
“I couldn’t find the words.”  
“What does it mean? To you?”  
“What does it mean? My position in this fiasco of a war is precarious as it is, the balance of my reactions and every measured word - one misstep or misplaced facial expression could get me and everyone in this house killed. When you were in the dining room earlier this week and you saved Miss Granger I could feel everything that you felt,” he was almost panting now, pacing across the floor between the wall and the closet.  
“It was a tidal wave I can not afford to have happen at the wrong time. I can’t close the connection no matter how hard I try. It’s an open window and that is a vulnerability I cannot allow.”  
He whipped around to her finally to survey her reaction but she was sitting on the bed looking exhausted, with a sparkle of something sorrowful in her eyes. She grimaced for a moment, swallowing thickly.  
“So that’s it. That’s all I am to you. A liability.”  
He could hear the notes of self deprecation in her voice.  
“The bond means nothing to you. You don’t feel what I feel.”  
He held his breath, feeling more of what he’d felt earlier through the bond. The resentment was front and center this time.  
“If that was all you have to say then I’m sure you can find your way out on your own.”  
Despite his own words it felt like a physical blow to the stomach.  
“That’s not what it makes me feel,” he began quietly, begging silently for her mercy.  
“But you don’t want it, so what’s the point,” her pitch rose, getting angrier.  
“The point, Anne, is that if we don’t bend to this it will only get worse. The bond requires fulfillment or it exacts its own cost.”  
She hopped up on her feet, fighting tears, fists clenched.  
“You’re not listening. Fuck the bond, what do you want. Hm? I’m not talking about your duty, I'm talking about your feelings. You keep dancing around it like I’ll take anything else as an answer.”  
“What do you want me to tell you? That - that I have some preposterous feelings for a complete stranger? Feelings I didn’t choose to have, that were forced into me against my will?”  
“I want you to tell me the truth, yes. How can you be so sure it’s against your will?”  
“Because it also precipitated your attention towards me. There is no reason why you would want to be around me otherwise. You’re being coerced.”  
To his surprise Anne stopped dead in her tracks, face neutral in thought.  
“You see, you know it has to be true.”  
“No you daft man, that’s not it.”  
He paused, taken aback. She turned back around and sat on the bed for a moment, mulling it over.  
“You think, honestly, that because I feel something for you through a bond, that it must be making me feel those things, and that it would be impossible for me to feel them otherwise. So by that logic the same effect would be had on you, making you feel something you don’t or couldn’t.”  
“Yes, precisely.”  
She put her head in her hands and rubbed her eyes.  
“I’m not going to psychoanalyze that because I don’t think you’d appreciate it right now, but really you’re wrong. I don’t know if I can express how utterly wrong you are with what I have available to me to use.”  
He was speechless for a moment, but overcame it with great effort. “You couldn’t be. Don’t flatter me with your words, it’s simply not - it’s just not possible.”  
“Then I won’t flatter you. You’re exactly my type - hush - you are. Short, fussy, sarcastic and witty. I could smell the harsh childhood on you from a mile off, and that does count in your favor. You have your priorities in order, you don’t go straight for an easy moment of gratification if it could threaten what’s most important to you. And you care about whether or not I can actually consent.”  
Severus stood in silence, absorbing her words.  
“You deserve better, I’ve done terrible things,” he was grasping at straws and he knew it.  
He had no more ground to cover. He could see the same look on her face as he had with the Headmaster, her mind was made up. She was standing now, stepping towards him carefully. The look in her eyes was what was now making his heart beat a little harder, after it had finally acclimated to being in her presence.  
“No one gets to tell me what I deserve. I will decide that for myself. I know what I want. What you have done is besides the point, I’m much more interested in what you’re going to do,” she was looking at him pointedly, eyebrow raised.  
He forced himself to breathe steadily.  
“What do you mean?” he asked through the fog of hormones beginning to ignite in his brain.  
“If you really don’t want to, I won’t make you. Your consent is a requirement of mine as well, I only want you if you can decide on your own to want me back.”  
He was staggered by that statement. Nobody cared what he wanted, how he felt. He did as he was told, went where he was made to and could not make his own decisions unless directed to. She wouldn’t have him if he really was being coerced, and she wanted him. He was not a wanted person in any sense. Had never been.  
He blinked for a moment, processing, thinking.  
“So you believe the bond isn’t a compelling force, only a directing one?”  
“I do.”  
“And if I am inclined to agree with you, which I am, then I would be free to make my own decisions about what to do with it?”  
“Mmhmm,” Anne agreed absently, inspecting the floorboards.  
“I’m - I’m not good at this,” he admitted, defeated.  
She looked up at him, emotions laid bare for him to see in her expression; expectancy, hesitation, excitement.  
“You think I am? Being forward and being experienced are entirely different things.”  
He moved forward, feeling the magnetic impulse to touch her, and let it happen of its own accord, cupping her face in his hand. She leaned into the touch slightly, watching him from under her fringe.  
“This is quite possibly the worst timing of any major event in my life, which is no small feat,” he murmured, head cocked slightly while he watched her. Her eyes were half closed and she caressed the back of his hand with her much smaller one, sending a shiver up his spine.  
“Tell me about it,” she muttered. “What do we do from here?”  
“As far as I’m aware, ignoring the bond can lead to extreme emotional consequences for both parties, so I will be visiting regularly, if you’ll have me.”  
“Hmm, I’ll have to think about that,” she replied, teasing. She looked up at him when she said it and the way her eyes conveyed what she wanted felt like it shot lightning through him.  
He immediately leaned down and kissed her without hesitation. She gasped out a small sound of surprise but then her soft sweet lips parted to return his firm but gentle embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck to bring him closer and steady herself. He moved his hands down to her waist and pulled her flush against him, brain slowly getting fuzzy on the drugging effect of her kisses, feeling the curves of her form fit against him perfectly. The thrumming of magic underlined every move and touch, heightening his senses and making him feel alive. Her tongue on his neck while he ran his hands up her torso was exquisite. He was hardly aware of them moving towards the bed, but somehow in the middle of his heart racing and her sinful mouth he was sitting on the covers with her straddling his lap. His hands ran down her thighs to pull her closer and her fingers grazed at his scalp while they explored each other through robes and deep, intense kisses. Their breath was getting quicker, a frenzy of snogging and groping took over them and he was sure their clothes would have been off next if someone hadn’t knocked on the door. She huffed in annoyance and turned to call out “I’m in the bath, what is it?”  
“Oh sorry, just checking that you were alright,” called Mrs. Weasley.  
“I am, thank you,” she replied.  
“I’ll leave you be then.”  
Anne turned back to Severus, and he was finally fully aware of her disheveled appearance and shining eyes. Her hair was flipped back out of the way, falling in brunette waves down her shoulders, lips lightly bruised and glistening in the half light. He flexed his hands on her thighs and gave in to the overwhelming desire to wrap his arms around her. She settled into his arms almost immediately, and pressed her face into his neck to maintain skin contact and sighed in contentment.  
“I shall have to take my leave soon.”  
She huffed out a breath of air. “Don’t stay away for too long.”  
“I was seen coming up here, I wouldn’t want someone to get suspicious.”  
“Why?”  
“The moment Black catches wind that I’m even speaking to you regularly in his house there’ll be a small explosion and I would prefer you didn’t get caught in it.”  
“Ah. Is there some bad blood there?”  
“The understatement of the century.”  
“Hm. Well, thank you for looking out for me but I can handle the occasional jackass.”  
“He’s rather more persistent and hands on than the average annoying twit, but if you say so.”  
Anne smiled into his jaw, sitting up slightly to get a good look at him.  
“What was that about needing to leave?”  
He sighed, reaching up to caress her cheek gently. “Needs and wants are two entirely different things.”  
“I couldn’t coerce you into staying could I?” she whispered, rubbing her hand over his chest.  
“Unfortunately, no. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.”  
She kissed him again, and let him up to go.  
He turned to look back at her for a moment before he left with an intense gaze, closing the door behind him gently.

The echoes of her skin on his were felt all the way home and into his bed where he could only dream of what had transpired and what was interrupted. He had been fully aware of his actions, and also fully aware that if they hadn’t been stopped by better judgement the bond would have been sealed immediately. Severus had to take a cold shower, knowing for a fact that she would feel his release if he tried anything in the privacy of his own home, but was surprised later that night with exactly the thing he had meant to spare Anne from.  
It started off as a tingle, a sensation that was both familiar and foreign. He was aware of it in the back of his mind and thought it would be harmless to investigate, and was rewarded by a burst of pleasure that traveled up his spine and down his groin so rapturously he couldn’t stop himself from reacting and riding it out. It took him a minute or more of the experience to realize that it was her experience he was feeling and that she was - well - his face couldn’t have been more crimson! But he was so fully taken over by the sensations he couldn’t taper off the connection enough to regain his general senses.  
He felt something change quickly and his lungs stopped mid breath before he felt like he was exploding - toe to scalp his entire body was in ecstasy like he had never imagined it to be, coming in his pants like a teenager, yet untouched. Once the.. event... subsided he felt a bone deep afterglow take over him and he went to sleep before he could even think of cleaning himself up.  
In the morning his alarm woke him up and he felt more rested than he had in some time, more limber and in a better mood as well. He blushed in the shower remembering why, and was equally mortified and intrigued by the experience. It felt like an intrusion on her privacy, but it was also notable that even that level of base feeling could be shared through the mental portion of the bond and he wanted to investigate it more.  
He was somewhat indignant as an afterthought that she would -! And think of him! While she did it! It was flattering, of course, how could he not be flattered that he had made her so aroused just with a bit of snogging that she had to deal with it by herself, but he was quite jealous that he hadn’t been there. It was an odd mix of feelings. He had never been with someone before, or experienced anything even close to what they were sharing when they were together so it was all very new to him. For a time he wondered if he would ever have feelings for anyone and had worried that he might be ill, but the bond explained everything. More to the point he’d had a taste of what it was to be with her and it was driving him insane that he couldn’t be with her at any given instant.  
The meetings he had for Hogwarts and a few Head of House obligations took up his entire day, and though they were tedious and boring at best, and the mere thought that he might see her for a moment was the only thing that got him through it.  
He headed to the Order House immediately once the meetings were over. When he walked in the front door his heart dropped into his shoes at what he saw.


	3. The one with the power outage

“Hey, Anne!” Black chased her down the hallway, coming up next to her when she left her room for the first time that day. 

“I heard you arguing with Snape last night. Are you really bonded to that shite?”

Anne’s blood immediately began to boil. 

“That’s none of your business.”

“So it’s true then! I can’t believe you, letting  _ him _ of all people put his hands on you,” he growled. “And in my house!” 

“I do as I like, thank you,” Anne replied coldly. 

“I’ll have you thrown out, I can’t believe that ugly git would carry on like that right under my nose-“ 

Anne had enough and turned to leave, but Black caught her by the arm to keep her there. She could feel how hard he was trying to squeeze her and if she had been anyone else it would have bruised. She grabbed his hand and shoved it away, as he yelled as his fingers crunched under her hand - a massive surprise to her. 

He was angry enough then to take out his wand and she made a run for it. Spells blasted into her back to little avail, singing her clothes but leaving her unscathed. She jumped the railing for the staircase and took off towards the front door, finding it magically locked by the time she got there. 

The house was also becoming aware of what was happening, people coming out of the kitchen and from up stairs to see what the commotion was all about. She stood still, ready to dodge whatever was coming next just in case she wasn’t impervious to everything he could think of, when the door opened next to her.

Severus walked through, and in a flurry of movement Black was on his back, bleeding from a cut across his chest, wand flying into Severus’ hand. Severus grabbed her by the hand and pulled her behind him instinctively, holding tight in his anger. Anne was so relieved to have him near her again it ached. 

“Are you alright,” he asked, breathless from the heat of the moment. 

“I am now. I thought he was going to kill me,” his hand turned from clamping to a caress, sending a shiver up her back. 

“I can’t let you stay here any longer, in that case.”

“Where else can I go?”

“To my place.”

Anne’s stomach gave a jerk. “Severus I can’t do that to you,” she whispered in earnest. 

“Nonsense. You would have eventually, it’s only natural.”

Anne blushed and shut her mouth. 

“What in the blazes is going on out here?” yelled Mrs. Weasley, rushing over to Sirius. 

“Black just attacked Anne. I intervened before she came to harm,” Severus told her smoothly. 

“Oh no,” Mrs. Weasley balked, looking down at Black’s wounds. “You two should go before he comes-to, I’ll handle the mess. Go!”

Severus threw the extra wand back on the floor at Blacks feet and swept Anne out onto the front step before she could protest and apparated them to his house. 

It was dark inside the foyer and Severus took that moment to embrace her, holding onto her fiercely. 

“I’m sorry,” she told him, “you shouldn’t have to do this for me.” 

“Hush. I must inform the Headmaster of what has happened. Here, sit, it won’t take long.”

She did, shakily lowering herself onto the threadbare couch as her eyes adjusted in the half light. The fireplace lit spontaneously and a douse of powder lit up the floo to Dumbledore with a muttered word. 

“Anne has been relocated to my home.”

“Severus we didn’t discuss this.”

“Black attacked her, apparently he caught wind of our involvement and thought it wise to attempt to curse her. I happened by and intervened.” 

“Ah well. There’s nothing else for it. Keep her safe, you know she could bring the Order to its knees in an instant.” 

“Of course, Headmaster.”

The floo closed and the room was better lit by the fire once Severus stood. It was the living room, with a scarce few places to sit, all obviously quite worn out. The carpet no longer had a pattern, and the walls were covered floor to ceiling with piles of dusty books. 

By the time he closed the connection, cleaned his hands magically and sat next to her on the couch she was mostly calm, now more curious than upset. She looked back to him, caught in his gaze. Her cheeks warmed at the intensity of the protectiveness coursing through the bond, now amplified by his hand holding hers. 

“Anne,” he whispered, “ _ please _ stay here with me. I can’t protect you at headquarters, and I don’t trust anyone else to keep you safe. If I lost you I couldn’t bear it,” his eyes shone in the firelight, reflecting his sincerity and the hurt in his voice. “It was foolish of me to leave you behind last night, as soon as I knew the truth of what we might have I should have made my intentions clear and brought you home with me immediately. Please forgive me,” he kissed the back of her hand. 

Anne blinked in surprise at his admission, and reached up to hold his face. 

“Oh Severus, there’s nothing to forgive, but you are forgiven if that’s what you need. I’ll stay with you. I want to know you, truly. You saved me today, and I don’t know how I could ever repay you,” she told him, kissing him chastely on the lips.

He kissed her again, only properly, and she smiled into it. 

“Stay safe for me, that’s all I ask,” he whispered against her lips, nipping gently at them. 

“I can try.”

“I apologize for the state of the place,” he muttered, bringing her to rest against his shoulder. “I don’t spend much time here during the year, most of the furnishings date back to the house's original construction or from my parents in the sixties.”

“I didn’t come here for the contemporary design, Severus,” she told him, rubbing his chest with her hand absently. 

“Yes, well,” he smiled slightly.

“There are some things I have to tell you, so that I’m being as honest as possible with you.”

He paused. “Go on.”

“I’m not from here - this time, I mean. I was born in 1997. When I went to sleep at home for the last time, it was the year 2020.”

“You were- wait. You haven’t been born yet?” his voice was filled with confusion. 

“Nope.”

“And that’s why you can’t go back, nobody would know you.”

“Right.” 

“I’m so sorry, I had no idea you were so stranded. Was that all?”

“You believe me?” 

“Of course. What reason do you have to lie to me about that?” he replied sincerely. 

Anne sighed and pressed her face into his chest further, breathing out in relief. 

“Severus?” 

“Yes?” 

“What are we going to do now?”

“Well since neither of us have eaten I was thinking of dinner-”

“I meant what are we going to do from here on?”

“The bond will require completion. The Ministry is not fully transparent concerning how bonded soul mates are viewed. According to some works I’ve come across, most bonds of that nature are regarded as a form of marriage without a requirement for officiants.”

“So we’ll be married?” 

“Yes I suppose we will. On the subject of… confession, I have something as well I - I have never been with anyone ... before.” 

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of. I haven’t either. Nobody’s been important enough until now.”

“U-until now?” Severus choked out. 

“I’ve been trying to get into your pants since I met you,” Anne told him seriously, a note of petulance in her voice. 

“I hadn’t noticed,” he replied lightly, somewhat flustered by this new information. “When you were in the tub you said it was just timing-“ 

“Oh that was definitely the truth, I didn’t know you were coming. Everything after that was on purpose,” Anne grinned and kissed his jaw. 

“I mean - I’ve never even wanted to kiss a woman before now,” he had a hand over his eyes, embarrassment turning his face pink. “I don’t know how to go about asking for things like that.”

“I won’t bite, you can ask me anything you want to. The worst I can say is no, but I won’t make you feel ashamed for having the courage.”

He put his head back over the back of the sofa for a moment and swallowed. Anne could see the bob of his Adam’s Apple and reached up gently to stroke her fingers down his exposed throat. It was pale and soft, the barest amount of stubble tickling her fingers. 

“Last night after I left,” he paused, thinking. “I went to bed and became aware of something private you may have been doing.” 

Anne paused for a minute absorbing what he was saying. 

“Oh. Oh! You were- I didn’t even think about that. Hm. Sorry,” it was Anne’s turn for her face to burn. 

“No no, don’t be sorry it was - exhilarating. I could feel everything you did, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it all day.” 

Anne got up and straddled his lap, which started him slightly, making him sit up properly, but she held her ground. He instinctively put his hands on her thighs to steady her but was wide eyed in confusion. He was never more aware of how much blue was in her green-brown hazel eyes. 

“Do you want to know what I was thinking about?” 

He swallowed. “I know you were thinking about me.”

“Well that’s obvious, but do you want to know what you were doing to me in that fantasy that I liked so much?” 

At the word  _ fantasy _ goosebumps appeared on the back of his arms. 

“Y-yes,” he whispered breathlessly. 

She leaned in and whispered in his ear and his mind turned to mush. 

He grabbed her up in a passionate kiss, hugging her flush to his chest to get her as close as possible to him. Anne gasped and kissed him back, threading her fingers through his hair and pressing herself into him. 

Severus tugged at her dress insistently, releasing her long enough so she could pull it off and throw it to the side. He left a trail of hot kisses down her neck and collarbone, taking off her bra in one go to lavish her chest with nipping kisses. 

She let her head loll to the side while she tried to work on his buttons and eventually got his outer frock off only to find another shirt and huffed impatiently. He chuckled into her neck and flicked his wrist to undo all of them, allowing her access to his bare skin. 

Their matching makes had grown, and now resembled a tiny sun, on Anne, and an equally tiny moon on Severus. They glowed with a warm light. 

Her hips were flush with his and she could feel his erection blossoming against her, and it drove her mad that she was only a few layers of cloth away from what she was after. She pulled his face up to hers gently and kissed him in earnest, feeling his hand slip down in between her legs exploring and was rewarded by a soft moan when he found her clit and stroked it just so. She was so wet he could barely believe it. 

Finally he couldn’t take it and pushed her down onto the couch and finished undressing, kicking off his boots and pants in one go. 

Anne was on her back dragging him down to kiss him fervently and lifted up to let him take her knickers, and opened her legs quite willingly for him to settle between her lush pink thighs. He felt like he was in a trance, finally getting to press his full body against hers and feel her move under him. She reached down and stroked him carefully, making his hips jerk forward, and he gasped into her kiss. 

She relaxed down into the cushions and let him figure things out, enjoying the sensation of his hands on her. She thought absently that it might hurt, but then remembered that it couldn’t hurt if she was fully impervious to physical harm and looked forward to it much more. 

He was inside her quickly, and she gasped when he was fully seated, mirroring his own reactions. They looked at each other in a moment of clarity, the very air changing around them, and he descended to kiss her roughly while the magic started to build around them. 

As soon as he moved inside her for the first time, it was on. Anne put the heel of her foot against his arse and angled her hips to give him as much forward movement as he could get. He experimented with a few angles and found one he could sustain before he let go and fucked her properly. 

She hadn’t been able to scratch that itch on her own and she was overjoyed he was the one to do it. She was in a haze of pleasure, high pitched vocalizations escaping her on every thrust like birds flying out of her chest. He was so focused on her, mouth latched onto her neck, hands gripping her hips, and managed to drive her to better heights than she’d ever reached. 

They were sweaty and panting when he felt her clenching up around him, head tossing back, hands grasping at whatever they could get a hold of until she was frozen in a silent scream, bringing him with her in the most intense all consuming orgasm either of them had ever had. 

Underlying that was a magical current traveling between them with massive power, swirling and pulsing until it burst. The world went dark, literally, as the fire and all the lights in the room went out. 

Severus was out cold lying on top of her, which she found endearing, and she shifted slightly so he wouldn’t be trapped inside her the whole time. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek, holding him happily while she caught her breath. He was still alive, breath moving the stray hairs around her neck rhythmically, but otherwise he was perfectly still. 

In the aftermath of the massive power surge, the air was sparkling dimly from leftover particles of magic. She watched them interested, reaching out with a hand for them collect on her skin and dissipate. The curtains were pulled tight over the windows so not much light came into the room, save what was reflected off the ceiling. 

She could feel his separate heartbeat thrumming as if it were inside her, and if she concentrated well enough she could see the magic coursing through him. On the inside of her left ring finger was a magical rune she recognized from the book, for eternal bonds and matrimony. She plucked Severus’ free hand up and compared them, watching them glow slightly when they got close together. 

He finally woke up, taking a deep breath and rolling to the side to let her move more freely. 

“Hey there,” she smiled. 

“Hm,” he nuzzled his face into her neck, kissing it lightly. “What did I miss?” 

“We killed the power. And the fireplace.” 

One of his eyes came open slightly and surveyed the darkness. 

“I see.” His deep, lovely voice made her skin vibrate slightly. 

“That was amazing,” she told him, kissing his forehead. 

“Ah. Well. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I did too,” he said stiffly, hiding his face. 

“No being bashful, you fucked my brains out. I can’t even think properly.”

He chuckled and slung his arm over her comfortably. 

“Didn’t you mention dinner earlier?” she asked, playing with a strand of his hair between her fingers. 

He sighed and got up finally, kissing her on his way over to put on his trousers. 

“Do you like Chinese take out? I don’t have anything substantial to eat besides crisps and maybe enough leftover meat for one sandwich.”

“I’d like that.”

Severus used the phone, the landline was old enough not to need electricity to work, and ordered in what Anne was sure was actually Mandarin. 

Severus used his wand to light some candles and place them about the kitchen to light it up somewhat. He was staring at the lights wondering why they weren’t working when he realized how smooth and clean the floor felt under his feet. He looked down and it appeared to have been waxed and shined, which it most certainly was not earlier that morning. Investigating further the cabinets, counters, even the inside of the old ice box was spotless. The table hadn’t been that shade of white in thirty years, he was sure. 

Poking his head out into the living room he could now see in the newly lit fireplace that his sofa was now plush and looked newly upholstered, his wife sitting in her borrowed dress now inspecting the once threadbare cushions. 

She looked up at his questioning face and shrugged. The bookshelves looked new, dusted and recently cleaned, and the fireplace was free of excess dust and ashes. 

“Anne, I want you to try to do something for me please,” he asked hesitantly. It was worth a shot. 

“Okay.”

He held up a candle. 

“Take this from me. Without moving from that spot.”

Anne started at him blankly for a moment, not comprehending, but then as soon as her expression changed when magic entered her mind as part of the equation the candle vanished from his hand and appeared in hers. She gasped and almost dropped it. 

“Wh- when did that-“ she started, but then stood in excitement. “I can do magic!” 

The fireplace went out again in a  _ woosh  _ of air. 

She turned to it and said out loud “That’s just rude,” and it re-lit instantly in a flash of multiple colors that settled to the usual orange. 

Severus was leaning against the door frame absorbing the new information. 

The binding had apparently awakened her magic. He attuned himself more acutely to her aura through the bond and could see now how no magic could touch her. It was pouring off of her in waves, making an impenetrable bubble around her not unlike a parrot-fish's defenses. Her magic was also incredibly potent, based on the intensity of the blackout it had caused by coming to life fully, and her ability to do it so readily without training or a wand for guidance.

“It’s not supposed to be that powerful is it?” she wondered, following his train of thought subconsciously. “I don’t want to hurt anyone by accident.”

“You won’t. Not if I can help it. I think.” He paused. “I think this could be part of the bond. But don’t quote me until I can find more information.” 

Anne smiled at him hopefully and he felt a movement of the air next to his face making his hair flutter, indoors. Her face reddened slightly and she walked up to him putting her hands on his naked torso with some confidence. 

“How long until the takeout is done?”

That brought him out of his reverie and he looked at the clock. Balking, he used his wand to summon the rest of his clothes and put them on hastily, apparating in a wink out of the house. 

Anne stood still, feeling the absence of his presence deeply. It wasn’t sorrowful, she could feel the connection still despite the distance, but it was an odd feeling all the same. She surveyed what she assumed to be her handiwork around the house, the kitchen was so spotless that she could eat off the floors (theoretically). The whole house looked almost new, and she was feeling the well of power inside her grow and refill from the previous explosion of it. 

In a few minutes he reappeared with bags in his hands looking surprised. 

“The word is power is out for three villages in any direction. They had a generator going and propane heat.” 

“Did I do that?” Anne asked meekly. 

“No. It happened from within you but you are not to blame. Come, I got you extra egg rolls.” 

Anne skipped space into the kitchen in her excitement, and realized once she got there what had happened. It wasn’t like how she thought apparating was supposed to be, a deliberate tugging and swirling, but more of a shift of the world around her to reorient at a different spot. 

Severus managed not to drop the rice on the floor, on his way to get her a bowl. 

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for me, you haven’t done anything wrong.”

Despite his sincere attempt to placate her, she quieted and ate in silence for the first half of the meal. He could feel the swirling emotions through the bond, confusion, worry, insecurity. 

“What’s the matter,” he asked finally, pouring himself another cup of green tea. 

“Am I a freak?” she asked quietly, not meeting his eyes. 

“Yes. Massively,” he deadpanned, making her look up at him in alarm. “I was thinking tomorrow we could go out, get you clothes, maybe swing through the market and get proper food.” 

She blinked, and gave him a searching look. 

“You don’t care that I’m weird.” 

“Have you met me?” he asked seriously, raising a brow. “We’re already married, Anne, I have no plans on abandoning you for things out of your control. Your ‘weirdness’ as you put it is of no consequence to my participation in this relationship. If it kills me, I’ll die happy,” he picked up another pot-sticker with his chopsticks and popped it in his mouth. 

Anne thought he was being terribly pragmatic about it, and was instantly relieved.

“What if the next time we have sex the power gets knocked out again,” she wondered out loud.

He chewed, thinking it over seriously. “I’ll figure out a dampening charm for that. I may need to run a few tests, when you’re up to it, to make sure nothing leaks out to any consequence. I don’t want to relegate it to just the bedroom, but there will likely be no room for activities outside the house.” 

“I have no qualms about that. I have too much performance anxiety normally as it is, if you tried anything outside the privacy of this house I might have a panic attack.” 

“Is it really that bad? I knew you didn’t want to be the center of attention but I had no idea it was that extensive,” his tone was sympathetic. 

“I used to play all kinds of instruments, piano, fiddle, cello, and I wanted to teach music. When I went into the audition room with everyone staring at me I blacked out and woke up in one of the Professor’s offices with my mom. I can’t handle being in front of people, it’s too much.” 

“Well, I shall err on the side of caution then. My anxieties mostly lie in miscalculated social interactions.” 

They finished the meal and the mess disappeared, leftovers packed away neatly in the ice box, dishes clean in the cupboard. 

Anne huffed. “All I did was plan out what I wanted to do in my head. I always do that. It keeps me organized so I don’t miss steps and everything gets done right, but I guess the magic is doing it for me as I plan it out.”

“Did you plan to clean the entire house, reupholster my sofa and wax the floors?” he asked incredulously. 

“Yes. Eventually. Not right then. Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. I have a perfectionists compulsion.” 

“Ah. You too then.” 

“Oh was this your dirty drawer?” 

He blinked at her. “I’m a manner of speaking, yes,” he said slowly. 

“So your office and classroom are immaculate but your house is where the mess is allowed to live. I did that with my room as a child, later it was my car.” 

“How do you know so much about it?”

“It causes a lot of anger issues for me sometimes, I would try and control other people to the point that they hated me, and I had to go to therapy so I could be more functional again. Psychologists tell you all kinds of stuff after they figure out what the problem is.” 

Severus’ face was blank, analyzing the information. “Hm.” 

Anne looked up. 

“Do you want to run a test, then?” she asked slyly. 

He caught on and surveyed her imperiously. “We might. If you let me put up the wards first before you attack me.”

“I've had patience long enough to eat, I can wait a little longer.”


	4. Getting Comfortable

In the morning the power was restored and they had a slow, enjoyable start - strictly to test the capacity and functions of the wards, of course - and Severus gave her some of his own clothes to transfigure for the day. 

As soon as she put on the slacks and button up they shrank and widened in places to fit her perfectly, giving her an androgynous look he found infintely attractive. His old spare boots did the same, and she could have been a miniature of him despite her far more pleasing features. 

He donned a dark navy set to offset her black and they were off. 

In muggle London she managed to find a weeks worth of clothes in one store in a matter of an hour, and left them at the house before lunchtime. 

“You can spend more than that, if you want,” he offered offhandedly. 

“I found exactly what I wanted, frugality is just my default,” she replied without further comment. 

He secretly thought she didn’t want to overburden him, or worse, thought he was destitute. 

“We could get some nice robes to make up the difference,” she told him over sandwiches from the deli around the corner. 

He smiled a little at that. 

“We could. I don’t know that Diagon Alley is the best place just now, but there are not many other good tailors in London.” 

“If you want to wait we can do it on a weekday morning to avoid foot traffic.” 

“I don’t have another day to do this for a month or more. We can go today.”

“What all do you have to do?” 

“Oh the usual. Planning for school, brewing for various businesses, meetings and the like.” 

“Will you come home every night?”

He looked up at her from his glass of water. 

“Yes, I brew in the basement lab. The meetings and food are the only thing I ever leave for, really.”

“Oh good,” she replied with a smile. “I don’t like it when you leave. I mean I don’t mind that you have your life and things to do, but when you went out for dinner last night it was an odd feeling.”

“I noticed as well. They say distance makes a relationship grow stronger, however it is inadvisable for a bonded pair to go for especially long without contact,” he told her, legs resting next to hers all the while. 

“Madness?”

“Fury,” he whispered, turning over the bill to peruse it, “violent, vicious fury. People have died.”

She waited silently for the other shoe to drop but it did not. He was serious. 

“Well it’s a good thing neither of us are naturally inclined to be angry, violent people, then, hm?” she said, knowing for a fact that both of them were, in fact, those very things at their worst. It could get messy. 

“We will have to practice this summer. Once school begins again we may not see each other for a week at a time or more.”

Her heart clenched hard at the thought, and by the look on his face, his had as well. 

“That might be inadvisable,” she replied, taking another sip of her coffee. 

“I’ll talk to the Headmaster about a solution.” 

Anne kept herself as calm as possible when they went inside the Leaky Cauldron to pass into the brick walled alcove and then Diagon Alley. 

It was just as sprawling and amazing as she’d imagined it to be, shops and people milling about with magical this and magical that in every corner. She held onto Severus’ hand so she wouldn’t lose him in the throng and felt how her magic that had begun to crackle around her ebb and flow more smoothly, encompassing him like a protective barrier. He glanced at her in askance and went on, bringing her to Madam Malkin's robe tailors. 

Madam Malkin was surprised to see her with Severus, but got her up on the stand anyways. 

“So, are you here for school robes?” she asked in a very specific way that made Anne blink and look at her. 

“Oh no. I’m 23. Just a set of modest dress robes and three regular daily’s will do.”

“You can’t be,” she replied, taking her measurements anyways. 

“I know. Baby face, makes everyone think I’m about fourteen.” 

“I think you look completely your age,” Severus added irritably from his seat near the window, fingering through a magazine. 

“Thank you, dear, I appreciate that. It’s only because you know what an actual fourteen year old looks like.” 

“Are you two... together?” she asked in a much higher pitch. 

“Yes.”

“Do you think your parents would be angry if they knew?” Severus asked conversationally. Anne could see Madam Malkin’s interest pique as she worked. 

“Well. Yes and no. If they knew I found a man at all they’d be happy, and while your age might be a question or two they’d come around. My aunt got knocked up at twenty by a fifty year old man who later turned into a cheating drug addict, I think that would make us look tame in contrast. Given that you’re willing to work and an honest, stand up kind of man it would go over okay in the end.”

“All done, ma’am,” Madam Malkin pronounced and let her step off the platform. “All that’s left is fabric choice.” 

Anne grinned and rubbed her hands together in a mockingly malicious way to Severus’ amusement, and she followed the older woman back into the bolts of fabric happily. Forest green with a hemline of gold for the special set, then solid blue, black, and violet for the others. 

“They’ll be done and sent by the evening, it’s been a slow day.”

Severus footed the bill, and they went home for tea and a snack. 

“Thank you for my clothes,” she told him, arms around his neck, and kissed him on the cheek. 

“You barely got anything, it was no trouble,” he said by way of welcome, walking off into the kitchen to start the kettle. 

Anne changed into one of the sets of muggle clothes she got and went downstairs in time to hear someone knock on the door. Severus walked over, wand out, and peeked through the curtains at them. 

He opened it immediately, ushering in a tall blond with a cane and a surprised look on his face in expensive robes. 

“Anne, this is my friend Lucius Malfoy. Lucius this is Anne.”

Lucius took a moment to gauge how serious Severus was being, and then came to the conclusion he must be telling the truth. 

“I see that, the place finally has a woman’s touch about it,” he muttered to Severus who rolled his eyes. “Lovely to meet you, Anne,” he walked forward and accepted her hand, kissing the back of it. 

Anne smiled at him politely and didn’t say anything, walking into the kitchen to make a third set up for tea. When she didn’t find one, she poured herself a regular mug and the others vanished out into the living room and onto the small coffee table. 

She stood at the doorway, sipping, watching the two of them interact. 

“You didn’t tell me you had a woman moved in here, Severus,” he chided the other man, hand out to accept the tea service as it flitted about to him and poured itself carefully. 

“It’s been quite recent.”

“More recently than the last time we spoke?” he asked in surprise. 

“Yes, actually. I would appreciate it if you kept this to yourself.”

“Of course, old friend. I’ve never seen you look so - well,  _ relaxed _ .” 

“Good company can do wonders for the soul,” Severus replied. 

“Now, we do have that bit of business to discuss.”

“Yes, of course.”

Through the bond Anne could feel Severus urging her to go out into the back garden. She trusted his judgment and walked on out into the yard, enjoying her tea in the warmth of the afternoon. She was just wondering what she could do with the space, when Severus walked up behind her and put his arms around her waist, pressing into her back. She leaned on him, rubbing his arm comfortingly. 

He kissed her on the cheek and then on her neck, and she tilted her head to let him press his warm, sweet lips to her sensitive skin. Anne sighed and dragged her fingernails lightly across the back of his hand, raising goosebumps up his arm. She turned around when he stopped and looked up at him with a smile, accepting his lazy kisses gladly while he pressed his fingers up her shirt hem and smoothed them over her hip. 

“Bed?” she breathed against his lips and he smiled obligingly, taking her hand in his. 

“Of course,” he whispered and kissed her again, tugging her along up the stairs to their newly restored bed. 

Anne watched him hungrily while he pulled off his boots, and undressed quickly to lie back on the bed, watching him covertly from under her eyelashes. 

Severus made it out of his clothes quickly after the sight of her lovely arse passed him and padded over silently. He wanted to have the image before him burned into his retina, his wife lying back in his bed naked, beautiful and wanting. Her lustrous chocolate brown hair was fanned out behind her in waves, eyes glittering, skin flushed with excitement, lovely breasts rising and falling quickly with every breath. 

He stood at the end of the bed where her legs hung over the sides with his hands smoothing under her knees while he laid kissed to her chest and torso, descending slowly while he got down on his knees at the end of the bed. Anne’s hands were already fisted in the blanket in anticipation, and let him pull her down towards him by the ankles. She bit her lip when he looked up at her through her hair in the dim light of the bedroom and his eyes almost glistened with how drunk he felt seeing her so willingly spread for him like a banquet. Through the bond he could feel the lust and adoration coursing through her already and opened the connection wide, wanting to feel everything he did to her. 

He started with her lovely thighs, mouthing hot kisses over the soft inner portion of them, licking the textured stretch marks absently while he watched her toss her head back on the bed impatiently. He pressed his fingers inside her to start but realized with some pride she was already wet. Using her natural slickness he started smoothing it over her mons and working at her clit, making her squirm and gasp. He was satisfied with his work and leaned in to taste her, making all the breath escape her in one go. 

“ _ Yes _ ,” she hissed, eyes closed. 

He licked her clit deliberately, using the center of his tongue to apply even pressure and was rewarded with her head whipping back and her back arching. 

He kept at it, holding fast to her thighs while he worked to keep her grounded on the bed, hearing her sweet sounds and feeling her soft thighs move against his ears while she writhed under his touch. He could feel the intensity of her pleasure streaming through the bond like an avalanche, hitting him hard. Without much effort on Severus’ part she went over the edge quickly, a high pitched whine escaping the depths of her chest like a stifled scream. His own orgasm from the fallout struck him and he shivered at the sensation, hiding his face in her thigh. 

She lay limp on the bed breathing heavily while he crawled up and kissed her lightly on the neck, running his hands up and down the sides of her thighs. 

“You’re far too good at that,” she sighed at last. “I should return the favor.”

Severus perked up immediately. “I don’t have any other plans for this evening.”

And stepped out of the shower with Severus, relaxed and clean after he thanked her for her previous efforts  _ thoroughly _ , and was startled when she felt a twinge of pain through the bond, walking swiftly down to Severus who was in the kitchen, wand pressed to his forearm with a pinched expression on his face. 

“I have to go.”

She watched him summon his mask and robes, looking at her with trepidation. 

“I will be unreachable until I come back. If anything happens, go back to the Order House. I don’t expect to be long but don’t wait up for me.”

Anne kissed him on the cheek, hugging him to her fiercely. 

“Be safe.”

He left through the front door and she was alone in the house for the first time since she’d gotten there. 

First, she went down to the basement to stand in the doorway and look at the lab. She didn’t go inside, properly, but gazed at the fine instruments and flasks lined up against the wall on a workbench, a wooden table set up along the length of the opposite wall which housed more than a dozen different kinds of large, fifty gallon cauldrons beneath it. In the center was a long section of burners and platforms for them. 

The glass cabinets lining the back wall were full of ingredients, jars with slimy things in them, and finished potions labeled and neatly lined up. She walked back up the stairs and went into the attic, not touching anything but perusing the contents with her eyes. An old school trunk, some boxes and a few cobwebs that disappeared under her gaze, but nothing massively insightful on first glance. 

The spare room was the same, though it was obvious that it was supposed to be the master bedroom with its space and door directly leading into the bathroom. She realized they must be sleeping in his childhood bedroom. 

There was an old muggle radio on the nightstand and she took it out of its spot and brought it with her down to the kitchen. Some familiar music was on one of the channels and she turned it up, singing along absently while she made herself something to eat. 

She could feel the deep seated loss of not having Severus next to her and it pushed up her feelings of not being able to see her family again until it was like a knot in her throat. She ate through a sudden burst of tears, making herself finish before turning off the radio and sitting on the couch. The despair was overwhelming after only a minute and she felt like she was being crushed under the weight of it. She remembered her parents, her dogs, her grandparents, her friends, her job - all of it lost. She would never get to use her degree. Never get to go thrifting with her grandmother. 

She sobbed harder. The regret and pain ran deep, down to her core, and she couldn’t bring herself out of it to stop and breathe. Her chest hurt, heart broken in half, and she succumbed to the darkness of it. 

Severus returned from the meeting, having successfully ignored any emotion coming through the bond, thinking that was a victory. 

When he walked through the front door he realized his folly. Their proximity changed the intensity of the bond, and walking in the house was like walking into a choking, stifling miasma of pain and sadness. 

He found Anne curled up in the tub half asleep in a daze of depression. His heart went out to her, and opened the bond to feel what she felt, and understand the pain. He picked her up and brought her to the bed, taking off her shoes and pulling the blanket over her. He joined her shortly thereafter, undressed down to his shirt and trousers, and brought her into his arms comfortingly. She had stopped crying at some point, out of tears, but stayed in the same state as before, in limbo all except the arms that encircled him and the face that rested against his chest. 

“Whatever happens, I will not abandon you,” he promised, kissing the top of her head. 

They stayed like that for what seemed like hours until she fell asleep against him, and he was able to gather his thoughts. He would have to make an effort to keep her busy, and at least moderately out of the pit while she dealt with her loss. He knew she had already been in this time and place for a week and a half but that was not nearly enough time to cope. After the death of his friend, it had taken months to get a glimmer of himself back. After his mother passed, it was almost a year. 

He planned what he should to to keep her occupied and thought up some questions to get himself started. She would not want for anything from him if he could help it. 

She had only woken up once in the night with a start, not knowing quite where she was. She was quiet, taking in the smells and sounds of the house for a moment before turning to Severus, who was still awake next to her. 

“They’re gone,” she said, despondent. 

“They’re still in here,” he whispered, touching her sternum. 

“I miss them.”

“I know. Come here.”

She put her head back on his chest, and they went back to sleep eventually. 

In the morning, Severus went down to make breakfast and was gratified to see her slowly descend the stairs, showered but still bleary eyed and emotionally drained. 

He poured her a cup of coffee silently and offered her a plate of eggs and toast. 

She ate it mechanically and finished the coffee without complaint, sitting back for a moment to look out the window in thought. Severus didn’t bother her, waiting for her to speak first. 

It took until he came back up for lunch from brewing for her to speak. 

“I couldn’t get through this without you.”

“Whatever you need, whenever you need it, you need only ask,” he replied. 

He had some errands to run and offered to take her with him, but she declined. When he returned she was in the tub again, but this time actually using it, soaking in the lavender scented suds. Her eyes were half lidded in a relaxed daze. He sat next to her on the dry edge, kissing her cheek. 

“I got some things to make Alfredo fettuccine for dinner. You said it was your go-to at restaurants.”

Anne smiled a little at him. 

“Thank you, Severus,” she told him. “I’ll be out soon.”

“Would you like to help me cook?” 

She opened her eyes all the way finally, and blinked up at him. “Sure.”

Down in the kitchen he was able to convince her to mind the pasta and chop some leftover chicken breast up while he worked on the sauce. 

She was quiet, leaning against the counter while the sauce simmered away. 

“There’s an Order meeting tomorrow evening if you’d like to come with me.The Headmaster mentioned inviting you. I think some of the Order believe I’ve absconded you to keep you against your will.”

“I broke Sirius’ hand,” she said by way of an answer. 

“How did you do that?” he asked, perplexed. 

“All I did was push him away. I didn’t even try, really. I just wanted him off of me.”

“You’ve never shown any excessive strength while you’ve been here,” he thought out loud. 

“Nobody’s tried to hurt me while I’ve been here,” she corrected him. 

“In that case, you could easily defend yourself, but if you don’t want to face them yet I can make excuses for your absence.”

“No, I’ll go. If nothing else I can make them doubly suspicious.”

“Oh?” he asked, stirring the sauce as he turned off the stove eye. 

“Did he say he wanted me in the actual meeting?” Anne began to decant the noodles into two bowls, tossing in equal parts of chicken and vegetables. 

“Yes, something about your appearance has been uncovered,” he told her. 

“Oh, well then. I definitely can’t miss that. He’ll regret inviting me, but I’ll go.” 

Severus raised a brow in question, setting her glass of water down on the table for her. 

“It’s nothing too bad. I might give him a piece of my mind if he gets too personal.”

“I rather think he deserves it,” Severus told her after a sip of his wine. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I am well aware of the bull shit JK has tweeted about trans folks, and as a member of the LGBT community I am appalled and incredibly upset. As of this time I will be operating under Death of the Author rules, where the author is no longer referenced or included in any form, and I will endeavor to purposefully restructure the world my works operate in to better suit a pro-trans, pro-BLM and pro-Jewish narrative. Otherwise, have fun! She can’t make money off of this so go buck wild.


	5. The Prophet Speaks

At Grimmauld Place it was easy to get lost in the crowd, when they weren’t staring pointedly at you holding hands with their least favorite member. 

Thankfully no one dared to be too rude to them as they made it to the library where the Headmaster waited to greet them. Severus opened the door for her and let her go in first before he slipped in and waited at it. 

“I’m so sorry we haven’t been able to meet since you first arrived. I’m told you got out before Sirius could do any lasting damage.”

“He certainly tried.”

“I see. Well, he’s been confined to his room while you’re here, we don’t need any outbursts from him disrupting the meeting.”

Anne took that as some sort of compromise and nodded. 

“Before we go into the meeting I must tell you how we know what happened to bring you here. I don’t want to push the real story out of respect for your privacy, so I will tell you the real story and you can decide if you want it made public among the Order.” 

“Go on,” Anne said, brow furrowing at his hesitancy. 

“There was a blood pact formed with a being far beyond our ability to understand. A few of the more zealous Death Eaters sought a way to learn the contents of a prophecy told to me years ago without infiltration of the Ministry of Magic to retrieve it. They traded their souls after death in exchange for the contents of the prophecy. What they got instead, as demons are so wont to do, is you. I assume you know both parts of the prophecy just as I do.”

Anne nodded, and she heard Severus’ sudden intake of breath. “I wouldn’t tell them, which I assume is exactly what the demon intended.”

“I believe it also intended that when you were transferred from your plane to this one that the soul bond you share with Severus would pull you as close to him as possible instead of the original summons location.”

“I mean, it’s a decent plan. And the powers?” 

“I cannot say. Speaking to the demon itself would be folly, I’m afraid. Their whims are not easily understood by mortals.”

“Tom must have really pissed someone important off with what he’s been doing. I think I know what it wants me to do.”

“I’m sure you understand that what you’re suggesting doesn’t fit the original plan.”

“The original plan is a cowardly shot in the dark and you know it.” 

Albus paused, blinking at her rising temper.

“I won’t lift the first finger to help you until you make it right with Harry. You left him in that hell hole this entire time, with those fucking people - but you don’t care as long as he’s tidily out of your way all summer, even if he’s being beaten and starved and neglected within an inch of his life. You send idiots to make sure he’s not dead or escaped like a pet rabbit, but never care about his health. That ends now. I don’t care how scared you are of what you discovered about his scar.”

The room was charged with her magic, positively surging out of her like a current in all directions, making the lights flicker softly. 

“These are my terms. You will bring Harry Potter here to stay - permanently - and we will begin work on his connection to Tom Riddle. Severus Snape remains unharmed by you or your plans, spying included. Do that and we all get to go to school this September free and clear of that maniac.” 

“Done.”

Anne put her hand out, face inscrutable, never breaking eye contact. Albus stuck his own hand out and grasped it, feeling the wand-oath take hold. 

Anne smiled softly at the Headmaster and turned to Severus to take in his blank expression. The bond was quiet for a moment as she followed him out into the hallway and down to her previous room, now empty. Dumbledore passed and they were alone, whispering under a charm. 

“When we get home, I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

He nodded slowly, still taking in what he heard. 

“I didn’t know that. About Potter. I had assumed - well the opposite. Nobody else had done anything, said anything,” he was on the verge of being distraught, but not quite allowing himself to get there. 

“You were meant to believe the lie, it helped you keep up appearances. You’re not the only one who was fooled,” she soothed. 

“How do you know all of this.” 

“I went to school for literary analysis and theory. That means when I read, I see more than just the words on the page,” she said carefully. 

“You - no. That’s not -“ he stuttered in disbelief. 

“Severus, have I ever lied to you,” she asked him, a hand on his shoulder, looking into his eyes meaningfully. 

“No,” he said, voice quavering. 

“Do you feel like I’m trying to deceive you right now,” she asked softly, baring her feelings through the bond and let him feel all of them. 

“No, I don’t,” he decided lamely. 

“Have you ever heard of the idea that our universe isn’t the only one? That every decision we make creates another possible future, played out in an alternate reality?” she asked quickly. 

“In passing, yes,” he replied, brow furrowed. 

“And if I already knew what would happen in your reality, and I was a legitimate match for your soul wouldn’t it make sense for some demon from another plane trying to pull one over on Tom to summon me and put a wrench in the spokes?” 

Severus sighed and put his forehead against hers, eyes shut tight. 

“This is all so dangerous for you. I don’t want you to die because of this. I can’t lose you too.”

“Of course not. I have to stick around and make sure you’re properly annoyed every day,” she whispered, smiling. 

He couldn’t help but chuckle at that and kissed her softly before he straightened up, taking a breath. 

“We still have to sit the meeting.”

“Might as well go on, then.”

Downstairs everyone was filing into the room, and Severus sat in the back corner, letting Anne get the true corner seat, and the wards were set. 

A man who had to be Alastor Moody pulled out a device and sat it on the desk, letting it sync with the room. Anne supposed it must be a Sneak-o-scope or something similar. He collected it after it did nothing, and they made to start the meeting. 

Anne listened with basic curiosity, though she had little context to go off of. Movements behind enemy lines, a purely verbal recount of the minutes of the last meeting, and an update on the false leads planted by Kingsley to keep aurors off Sirius’ trail. 

“Thank you all for being here today. We have some new information that moves the timeline for our endgame up to as early as the end of August. I now have confidence that he can be killed, once and for all.” 

The room immediately broke out in murmurs of confusion and excitement. 

“Because of this new information we need to move Harry here as quickly as possible. Alastor, how early can the extraction team be ready?” 

Alastor scratched his chin idly, the magical eye in his head swiveling in Anne’s direction regularly. 

“Tomorrow evenin’ if need be.”

“Excellent. Tomorrow it is. I will have more explicit details on our next meeting about the way forward, but getting Harry settled here is our focus tonight. His transfer here must be foolproof.”

They went over the same plan Anne remembered: call for a fake garden award, pick him up and bring him to the front door. The rest of the meeting was going over details, running scenarios for backups and making sure every possible outcome was taken care of. 

Anne was getting tired, as it was nearly midnight, when she felt Severus’ hand on the back of her arm. It was covert, he had his arms crossed over his chest, and he was sitting just close enough to her that it was out of view. His fingers drew circles up and down the back of her arm, and the contact kept her brain focused until the meeting was over. They were the last ones to leave, and Severus approached the Headmaster while Anne waited at the door. They exchanged a few words quietly, which Anne paid no mind to, and they were off. As they went for the door they were waylaid by Minerva McGonagall, who Anne had only seen in passing. 

“Severus, you didn’t mention at the staff meeting last week you finally found a young lady to settle down with,” she said, a little full voiced for the crowded space they were in. 

Anne could feel the eyes on her back from several quarters and felt her nerves start to fray at the ends. 

“Yes, well, we can discuss that at the next one,” Severus tried to excuse them from the throng. 

“Oi, nobody said that girl had shacked up with-“ 

Anne glanced over her shoulder at the offending idiot and his mouth closed up as if it was zipped shut. 

“We’re going home,” Anne said with finality and Severus looked over at Minerva with a shrug and a look of “my wife has spoken” and they left, apparating home. 

Anne was already halfway out of her shoes and travelling cloak grumbling while Severus stood off to the side, gathering his thoughts. 

“‘Shacked up’ - that absolute prick!” she muttered. “I hope it takes all night to get that charm undone and he’ll be starved half to death.” 

“When were you going to tell me?” he asked finally.

Anne looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Tell you what?”

“That you knew about everything already.”

Anne sighed and looked suddenly very tired and much older than she was. “As soon as I found the courage. And the time. Everything has been moving so quickly and I’m doing my best just to keep up. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” 

Severus looked at her for a moment, searching her face for answers. “Courage? What were you afraid of?” 

“Everything. I wasn’t sure at first - I was so nervous. I thought that telling anyone about my source would make them say I was delusional or discount everything I said from there on. I know you don’t think that of me but that doesn’t stop my anxiety from telling me otherwise.”

“I see. And now? Can you trust me?” he asked, guarded. 

“I have always trusted you. It’s me that I have doubts about,” she said, eyes seeking. 

“We’ll have to work on that. What else do you know?”

Anne fidgeted a little bit, not quite looking at him. 

“I know about everyone present when the prophecy was revealed.”

Severus paused, thinking. 

“You know I was there.”

Anne nodded. 

“And I know what happened after that. What you did with the information. The conversation on the hilltop after you realized the mistake.” 

Anne could feel the dread, trepidation and confusion through the bond. 

“And you still speak to me? Why?” his voice was hollow. 

“Because that’s one of the things I love about you.”

Severus shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“You made a mistake. Everyone does. But what you did afterwards is so important. You owned it, admitted it, you’ve gone the distance to make it right. Hell, you spent your entire adult life doing it, you could have left by now and done anything, anywhere else you wanted to. But you stayed. And now you’re off risking your life to finish what you started when you hardly have a dog in this fight, but you know it’s the right thing to do.”

Severus was slouching, looking down at the floor, face hidden by his hair. 

“Stop. Stop - saying those things - I don’t deserve them.”

Anne stepped forward and held him, one hand on the side of his face. 

“Yes you do. I love you, Severus, I love you so much, and I’ll say it everyday until you believe it if I have to. You’re a good man, and you’ll do the right thing.” 

He accepted her embrace and held on tight, shaking. 

“The things I’ve done - they cannot be forgiven so easily,” he whispered. 

“I do as I like, thank you very much,” she told him, kissing him on the cheek. “Now come on, to bed. You have a long day tomorrow.” 

Anne took his hand and led him upstairs to the bedroom, helping him out of his traveling cloak before getting out of her own cumbersome robes. 

She felt his hands on her waist after she had finished stripping and was searching through the closet for night clothes. 

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to him. 

“I love you too,” he whispered in her ear. “Whatever happens, I’m glad you’re here with me.” 

Anne blushed and smiled, smoothing her hands over his arms. He pressed his face into her hair, smelling the perfume from her shampoo, and dipped his head to kiss along her bare shoulder, making a path up to her ear. 

Teasing, he moved one of his hands down to her lower stomach, drawing lazy circles on her skin. 

Anne’s breath hitched and she moved her hand up into his hair to pull him down into a proper kiss. His meandering hand slipped down into her knickers and slid through her already wet slit, making her hips jolt. He built her up slowly, enjoying the play of light from the bedside lamp on his hand as he groped her bare chest, the shadow over her face from where it now rested against his cheek, mouth open in pleasure. Once he was satisfied that she was in a haze of pleasure and well on her way to becoming a puddle under his touch he pulled her over to the bed and finished undressing, pulling her knickers off in one motion. 

He crawled up beside her and positioned them lying down facing each other with her leg thrown over his hip. He wanted to see her properly. When he entered her she whimpered, mouth making an O, and her hands went to his chest and face, kissing him hotly. 

He took his time, letting her feel his emotions through his actions and not just the bond. His hand held her thigh up over his hip for access and he gripped the delicate skin greedily, kissing her lips like a man dying of thirst drinks fresh water. She pressed herself into him, letting him fondle her as he pleased while he progressively drove her higher and higher towards her climax. 

She was making involuntary little noises at his ministrations now, grabbing at him and kissing his lips more roughly, so he did what anyone would do, and stopped. 

Anne’s eyes flew open and her mouth formed a confused line but he leaned in as he pulled out slowly and growled “On your hands and knees.”

He was rewarded by her shiver and she complied, waiting for him with half lidded eyes while he got up on his knees and positioned himself behind her. She was swollen, slick and red for him when he grabbed her by the hips and re-entered in one swift motion making her gasp and moan. Her back and arse was a lovely sight below him, arching and angling herself just so for the perfect spot for him to hit. He let go and put his back into it, making a positively obscene smacking sound while she grabbed at the sheets in sweet agony and leaned back into him at every thrust. 

He knew she was getting closer to finishing when she started convulsing around him, making high pitched breathy noises. 

When she came - and dear god did she ever - she screamed out in ecstasy. In an instant his entire world exploded in light and color, and he came furiously inside of her, his issue leaking down their joined bodies. 

Severus passed out next to her, fully knocked out. 

Anne slumped forward and let herself be taken over by sleep, eventually curling up next to Severus in a comfortable wad of blankets. 

Anne was making coffee and breakfast when he came down in the morning, dressed and ready to take off. She got him to pause long enough for a few bites of egg off her plate and a quick sip of coffee before kissing him goodbye and straightening his collar. He rather liked that interaction, as small as it was, and reflected on it after he flooed to the Ministry for his meeting with the potions contractors guild. 

At home, Anne was abuzz with anxiety, cleaning by hand while she waited for time to make some lunch. Today was when the Order went to get Harry from his aunts house and she couldn’t be there to help. She set herself to organizing the dishes and making sure all of the perishable foods were in date, trying and failing to keep her mind off of it. To compound that, the bond was making her tetchy without Severus within reach, and the loneliness was creeping back in slowly. The radio wasn’t much help, but it drowned out the worst of her thoughts.

Severus didn’t come home for lunch, and she ended up eating his portion too eventually, curling up on the sofa with a book. 

When Severus did come home that evening Anne was half asleep on her arm in an endearing pose with a book on her lap, and he watched her silently with a small smile curling at his lip. He took off his travelling cloak and outer robes so he could start some tea in the kitchen, and took a moment to stroke her hair in passing. When he was finished with the kettle he heard her stir and come to stand in the doorway. 

“Hey, you,” she said sleepily. 

“Hello, did you enjoy your nap?” he replied, glancing at her while he poured her a cuppa. 

“Mmhm,” she nodded, walking up next to him to rest her head on his shoulder. 

“What did you do today?” he asked lightly, enjoying her warmth on his arm. 

She yawned, taking the mug of tea from him. 

“-cleaned out the cupboards, sorted out the old food. You have There and Back Again, so I was reading that when I fell asleep.”

“You like Tolkien?” 

“Very much, yes. The Lord of the Rings are some of my favorite books. What did you get up to all day?” 

“The guild has decided to take on some extra work so I will have a little more brewing to do this summer. After that I went with Minerva to deliver a letter to a new Muggleborn student for Hogwarts. This one will be a Slytherin, I guarantee it. We stayed until just before dinner, parents tend to ask more questions as they come to understand the gravity of the situation.”

“Oh, do you do that a lot during the summer?”

“Yes, it’s not strictly in my job description but Minerva doesn’t like to go alone.”

“That’s sweet of you,” Anne smiled, kissing him on the cheek. 

Severus gave her a half smile and finished his tea. The bond was a low humming now, hardly noticeable unless you paid it attention. 

“They’re picking him up tonight,” Anne remarked quietly, looking out the window at the sunset sky. 

“Everything will go according to plan,” he said. 

“And you’ll get the hard end of the rod for it,” Anne whispered. 

“There’s nothing to be done for it. Even the Dark Lord didn’t think the Headmaster would move so swiftly. If there was no time to make a counter plan, then there was no time.” 

“What will happen, if he hurts you? Will I feel it?” she wondered. 

Severus paused and looked down at her. “I can try to keep the bond as closed as I can, but there may not be much hope of stopping it.”

“It’ll still hurt my heart,” she said, sighing. “It will be a miracle if I don’t follow you in and try to kill him myself.”

Severus chuckled. “Despite the irrevocable destruction of the plan we’re trying to follow, that would be a sight for sore eyes.”

They made dinner together and sat at the table, eating quietly in each other’s company. 

A week passed before Anne was asked to come to Grimmauld Place. Up in the library, the Headmaster waited sitting in one of the reading chairs. 

“So glad you could join me, please, have a seat.”

Anne nodded and sat quietly in the chair opposite him. 

“Harry is just down the hall, still asleep I’m sure given the hour. I’ve met your part of the bargain.”

“Good. Alright. Let me figure out how to say what I need to say.” 

Albus nodded and waited. 

“I’ll tell you what your original plan was and the outcome. And then we’ll go from there. There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle, sorry if I get side tracked in the details occasionally.”

Two hours passed before they were finished, Albus looking equal parts grim and hopeful. 

“You mean to completely nullify that future.”

“I have to. In that version of events he kills you and then dies a horrible death a year later. He was so depressed and heartbroken and  _ miserable _ \- he chose not to save himself. He deserves better. Harry does too.”

“What would you do to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

“The people who died don’t need to. I could ambush him, take away his ability to act,” she said, scrubbing her face with her hands. 

“I’d have to meet him first though. That could expose Severus though, and given he’s an Achilles heel of mine it would also mean my death. He couldn’t be there to introduce me.”

“You were immediately accepted by the wards of this house. Not just the Fidelius, but several other wards only members of the Order are accepted by. You might be able to get past the wards on Malfoy Manor as well in the same way.”

“It would have to be timed perfectly. One swift hit to kill them all at once. During a gathering. There’s no use in cutting off a hydra's head; you have to strike its heart. But that usually requires being swallowed first,” Anne sighed standing up. 

“The proper opening could take months to appear.”

“I don’t have anything better to do but wait.”

“I haven’t told him how he got here,” Albus admitted. 

“Unless he asks directly, don’t involve me. I don’t want thanks. I've always believed the soul of charity lies in anonymity.”

“That’s very noble of you.”

“Don’t ask me here again unless it's an emergency or the window presents itself.” 

Albus nodded and she made her way back downstairs to the front door. 

“Hey, what are you doing back here,” asked a familiar voice behind her. 

She turned and saw Molly standing at the doorway of the kitchen. 

“Just visiting with the Headmaster.”

“Married life treating you well?” she asked pointedly. 

Anne smiled at her. “Very well.”

“That’s good to hear. Don’t be a stranger.”

Anne waved goodbye and left, apparating (or her version of it) back home to Severus. 

That evening it finally happened. Severus was called away while Anne was in the bath. She got out at a leisurely pace and dressed, going downstairs to sit on the couch. 

She was in the middle of reading when a speck of blood landed on the book in front of her. She pressed her fingers to her nose and drew back blood, and went to the kitchen to get a handkerchief. She wasn’t in any pain, but it was alarming anyways. The bond was almost fully eclipsed on her side, making her feel an edge of anxiety. 

When Severus came home he was in an awful state, and Anne burst into tears the moment she saw him. In a rush she was upon him, kissing his cheek and holding him close to let her magic work on him. Her heart was broken for him, and she poured her love out into her tears. 

Their proximity made the bond open fully, and she felt all of his pain and anger. His lip was split open and bruised, body covered in splotches of red and purple, one massively swollen black eye, bleeding from the nose and missing a fingernail. Anne let her magic encompass him completely like a thick blanket, knitting back together the torn flesh and beginning the healing process on the bruises. 

Her tears stained his robes but he didn’t care, feeling immensely better just holding her. His aches and pains receded immediately upon contact, and he felt his body begin to heal quickly under her touch. 

“Oh god what did they do to you?” she wept, placing her fingers just below his bruised cheekbone, now yellowing and fading. 

“I was punished for not delivering the time and day of Potters move. He let some of the other Death Eaters have a go at me.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, holding him closer. “I’m so sorry.” 

“You did the right thing,” he told her, standing upright more easily on his own. 

She helped him up to bed, his soiled robes and dirty shoes whisked away to the wash. In the shower after they were both clean for bed she stood under the spray and held him, making sure his wounds were completely done healing. 

“Anne, you’ve done all you can, I’ll be fine,” he consoled her. 

In bed, she kissed him gently, knowing he was in no shape for anything more, and ghosted her fingertips over his chest. 

Severus let her curl up next to him and place her ear over his heart while he slowly drifted off to sleep next to her. 


	6. Marital Bliss

On that following Wednesday, Headmaster Dumbledore responded in the affirmative to her note inviting him along to destroy another Horcrux. Anne was aware he knew it was bait to take her with him, but she didn’t care. He was a fanatic when it came to the Deathly Hallows, so bait or not he was a shoe in. Severus saw her off before he went to another meeting for the Potions Master’s Guild, and she lingered in his kiss for a short moment of heaven. 

At Grimmauld Place, Anne met the Headmaster in the library in muggle clothes, looking tired like all people who aren’t morning people do at that hour. The Headmaster was in the middle of a cup of tea when she arrived. 

“Ah, Anne. Care for a cup?” 

“No thank you. Are you free today to go and get the Resurrection Stone?”

He picked up the Sword of Gryffindor next to him. “I cleared my calendar. It’s not every day one gets to go on an adventure as an adult.” 

She nodded. It was strange to see him in anything other than brightly decorated voluminous robes. He was instead wearing a regular muggle professors getup, corduroy three piece suit and vest. 

“Where to?” 

“Yorkshire, a place called Little Hangleton.”

“Ah yes, the Riddle Estate where Tom killed his father and grandparents. Lead on.”

Anne had never used any type of scrying before, so it wasn’t easy to reach out at first, but she used Albus as practice first, then Severus, just as a directional sense, before reaching out to the manor itself, shrouded in darkness and death as it was. She apparated by herself to the road outside the house first to make sure they were in the right place, and then went back to bring the Headmaster along.

“You have an exceptionally smooth side-along transition for someone who has been apparating for less than a year.” 

“Thanks, I try my best.”

They started the trek down the hill through the copse of trees along the old dirt path. 

“I’m surprised you asked me to come along with you,” he admitted while they walked, voice jovial. 

“I couldn’t risk you finding out about it on your own and coming here alone,” Anne told him. 

“Why ever for?” he asked, feigning misunderstanding. 

“Your greed over the Hallows would drive you to pick up the ring without checking it for curses first. The path that you could set the war on after that folly is what I want to avoid,” she muttered, taking a left turn at the crossing. “The most efficient way to get the Horcrux out of Harry’s head is to make him the Master of Death and let Voldemort try to kill him.”

“That’s ambitious of you,” he replied conversationally. 

“That’s the plan. Kill the Horcrux, then cut and run. If we let him know we know about them he’ll be more likely to show his hand and reveal the location of Hufflepuffs cup. I just hope I don’t have to break into Gringotts. That place scares me more than most mortuaries.” 

“I’m sure Billius would be of some use in navigation should the need arise.”

“I’d hate to cost him his job.”

As they came upon it, the well was old and broken apart, barely recognizable apart from the brush and bramble that had grown up around it. 

The house was even harder to spot, except the windows and the door gave it away. Before they went in, Anne paused and turned to look up at the Headmaster. 

“Can I trust you to keep your wits about you in here or do you need to wait outside?” 

Headmaster Dumbledore sighed. “If I have nothing else in life, I have plenty of wit.”

Anne considered him for a moment and let her magic blossom out to engulf him like a protective blanket, ebbing and flowing around him. She turned to open the door before she could see the expression of awe cross his face and fade quickly, hidden. 

Inside the old house the floorboards were the only thing in decent shape. The rest of the house was falling apart; the ceiling had caved in on one eave, shrubs had invaded the broken windows, and every nook and cranny was caked in an inch or more of dirt, dust and dead leaves. Anne reaches out carefully to the middle of the floor where she felt a strong enchantment covering one of the boards. 

Motioning Headmaster Dumbledore to follow her, she stepped forward carefully and began untangling the wards on the board and working out the last of the hexes set to release upon its use. 

“Here we go, right in there it is.”

Carefully, using the leaves on the floor, she gathered up the ring in a nest and floated it out onto the wood floor. The Stone was tiny, it was any wonder how it had made its way through the years without being lost forever. The Hallows symbol on the top was just barely visible from where Anne sat back on her haunches to inspect it. Behind her she could feel a change in the Headmaster but was too curious about what was in front of her to take serious notice. 

Anne reached out with the tip of the sword and scored the top before anything important could happen, and stepped back quickly while the black, inky, screaming visage of Voldemort rose from the wound and evaporated into thin air. 

She prodded the ring carefully, stepping forward until she was sure it was safe to touch, and picked it up. 

“Not so hard was it?” she said, turning back to the Headmaster. She was shocked to see him standing there with his wand pointed at her, one hand out in front of him. 

“You should let me take it, Anne. I could keep it safe. You said yourself, the curse was what would have killed me. Now hand it over,” he said. His voice could only be described as simpering and sly. 

“No.” 

Anne stood and put the Resurrection Stone in her pocket. 

“Anne, it doesn’t have to be like this. We can get along - be friends. Can’t we?” he tried to reason with her. 

“My friendship includes keeping you out of harm's way, even from yourself,” she told him quietly. 

“ _ Give it to me _ -“ he was shouting, face red, raising his wand. 

“No,” Anne replied, still calm. “Your lust for power has always been your undoing. First Ariana, then Gellert, who’s next Albus? Hm?” 

His eyes flashed and he flicked his wand in her direction, a sheet of flames bursting out. They were redirected around the protective bubble surrounding Anne and dissipated. . 

“I think you need a time out.”

The magic issuing from his wand was choked, and nothing came out of the end. It flew forcefully out of his grasp and onto the floor behind Anne, who cocked her head slightly, eyes glistening with tears, and reached out towards him. 

“Anne don’t-!” he cried before Anne sent a pulse of light at him and he passed out on the floor in a heap. 

She was heaving with fearful sobs, moving slowly to pick up the Elder Wand off the ground and put it in her shirt pocket. Her heart was hurt. She knew going in this was a possibility but she had some hope, a little faith in his ability to be better than he had been, but she was wrong. Leaning over him, she put her hand on his cheek almost lovingly. 

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” she whispered.

Summoning her courage she hauled him up over her shoulder, sword in hand, and disapparated back into the library at Grimmauld Place. It was blessedly empty, and she threw down the sword and locked the door before putting Headmaster Dumbledore down on the couch carefully. 

She thought of the kiss she had with Severus that morning, pulling heavily on that feeling of love and safety before she took out the Elder wand and cast “ _ Expecto Patronum _ .” 

From the wand tip burst a silvery mist that materialized into a Fallow doe. 

“Go to Minerva McGonagall. Give her this message: It’s Anne, I need your help, it’s an emergency. Come to the library.” 

The doe sped off and she turned to sit at the table, shaking with fear and confusion. 

Minerva knocked at the door and she let her in quickly, checking for anyone in the hallway before locking the door back. 

Minerva was looking wildly between him and Anne. 

“Explain. Now.”

“We went to get one of the pieces of Voldemort’s soul to destroy it, but the thing the piece was inside of is also a Deathly Hallow - the Resurrection Stone - and after I used the sword to get rid of it he turned on me and tried to set me on fire- I don’t know what I did to make him do that!” Anne was crying in earnest now. 

Minerva was processing everything she was saying and nodded to herself. 

“You didn’t let him keep the Stone did you?” 

“No.” 

“And he’s alive?” 

“Of course he’s alive! I’m not a murderer!” she wept. 

“Alright, I had to be sure,” she tried to sooth the other woman, putting a comforting hand on her back. “You know, he’s had an obsession for a number of years with the Hallows. When he got the Wand I was fearful he would use it to harm as it has always done. The Cloak worried me even more so, but he surprised me when he let it go. The Stone was his breaking point, I suppose. I’ll deal with the damage here, if you’d rather go on home.”

“If you say so,” Anne conceded and wiped her face with her shirtsleeve. “He’s not going to be happy when he wakes up.”

“He’s about to get a piece of my mind,” the older woman grumbled. “Don’t worry about this too much, dear. You finished the mission, that’s all that needs saying to anybody who asks.”

Anne nodded and apparated home, slogging up the stairs to the shower to sulk. 

Severus was home by the time she was finished, and came up the stairs quickly to see her. 

“What happened today? You’ve been crying again,” he said, taking her in his arms as soon as she opened the bathroom door. Her magic leapt out for him like full body hug before he even touched her, wrapping around him protectively. 

Anne rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. 

“Dumbledore tried to take the Stone from me at wandpoint.”

Severus froze. “He did?”

“Yes. I had to knock him out to get him to stop. I’ve never felt so wretched.”

Severus glanced down at the pile of her clothes on the floor. 

“You kept his wand.”

“It’s the Elder Wand,” she told Severus. “And I’m it’s master now. I disarmed him in combat.” 

“And you can’t be magically disarmed-“ Severus added, cogs whirring in his brain. 

“So unless he can steal it off my dead body he can’t take it back,” Anne finished tiredly. “Which keeps it under lock and key until time to use it.”

“Can you even use it?” Severus wondered aloud. 

“I cast a patronus to call for help. Minerva is dealing with him right now. I blocked off the floo, I hope you don’t mind.”

“Ah. There’s not much to be done about it then. I’m sorry that happened, my love, he deserved every bruise. What form did your patronus take, if you don’t mind my asking?” he asked lightly, stroking her hair. 

“It was a doe. One of the local kind.” 

Anne went to pick up her clothes and the ring fell on the floor out of her pocket. She picked it up and looked at it for a moment before putting it on her thumb. 

“How was your meeting?” Anne asked him, walking into the bedroom. 

“It was an induction, glad handing and drinks and the like. Nothing terribly important.”

“Oh, no wonder you’re back so early.”

“I figured they could get on without me. I already taught all of the inductees during their school years, none of them are bad enough to vote out. You know that old codger Markus is still trying to get us to take on that experimental brewing contract with Sleek-Easy? Preposterous. I have him the usual dressing down and his face when half the room assented; priceless.” 

Anne paused and looked at him for a long moment, eyes soft and lips curved into a gentle smile. 

“What?” he asked, becoming self conscious in an instant. Anne touched the side of his face gently with her fingertips. 

“I love it when you talk about things you enjoy. You get this look about you - I mean I already think you’re the best thing since sliced bread but - when you really talk about it and your face lights up like that. You’re really beautiful.”

Severus’s face turned bright red and he turned away, clenching his fists. 

“You don’t have to tell me things like that. I know what I look like,” he said, looking away. 

“Well I’m looking right at you telling you this and I can see just fine.” 

“Yes of course it is you’re seeing me like that because you’re in love with me, it doesn’t count.”

“Why in the world not?” Anne asked, sounding almost offended. “I love you and I see you for who you are, why is my opinion less than other people’s?”

“It’s not I just - you’re looking at me through rose colored glasses,” he sputtered. 

“No I’m not. Loving you doesn’t mean I don’t see your faults. I’m more willing to accept them, sure, but I still see them. Your face just isn’t one of those things.”

“Anne please don’t start this,” he said quietly. 

She stopped and looked at him, really looked at him. He was in his usual robes for outings, looking dapper and put together for his meeting. He was standing tensely, turned off to one side facing away from her in profile. His hands were clenching and unclenching at his sides, and his shoulders were slightly hunched in a defensive stance. She saw his face, austere and pained, yes, but also expressive and sweet. His mouth, which had done sinful things to her and told her the loveliest things. His nose, which couldn’t belong more, and his eyes which always made her heart melt and her stomach do flips. 

“Severus Snape. Look at me.”

He turned his eyes to her and relented, turning back to her reluctantly. She put her hands on either side of his face in a gentle grasp, eyes looking into his meaningfully. The magic of the bond thrummed in the background. 

“You are everything to me. You have made me so ridiculously happy in such a short amount of time, and I love  _ every _ part of you. Even the ones you don’t think are lovable.”

He sighed and looked down, smoothing his hands over hers. 

“I don’t deserve it,” he told her sadly. 

“I’ll decide who does and doesn't deserve my love, thank you.” 

“Anne…” he protested without any heart in it. 

She kissed his lips with longing, cutting it short before either of them got any ideas. 

“Now come on, let me get dressed and we’ll get something to eat.”

Lucius Malfoy came to call that evening after their leftovers were put away. Anne was still sitting on the couch finishing a glass of wine when Severus let him in. 

“Lucius, what brings you here so late?” Severus asked, slightly alarmed at his friend's expression and appearance. 

Mr. Malfoy looked like he’d been through a hurricane. His hair was messed up, clothes haphazardly put on, cane clutched halfway down the shaft as if he’d not once put it on the ground since picking it up. He had a five-o’clock shadow which was graying, and he looked angrier than Anne supposed she’d ever seen him. 

“I have to discuss something with you and I hope that our friendship will survive it,” he began in a rush, accepting the seat Anne offered him next to her. 

She shared a pointed look with Severus who sat in the armchair across from them. 

“I’m sure it will, please go on,” Severus prompted him. Anne set her wine down and leaned in interestedly. 

“You know very well that the Dark Lord has moved into my home this summer as a base of operations, and while I was fine with it at the beginning it’s become a serious problem in my household. You remember that pedophile Morrison from the first war? Well he was released recently and the Dark Lord _invited_ _him_ \- to _my_ house! Knowing full well my son was home from school! Morrison was famous for his proclivities and preferring _boys my son's age_ -“ Lucius was incredibly angry, pale skin flushed, eyes flashing. “I’ve moved Draco to our friends the Goyle’s home until school resumes but that is the last straw. I cannot abide this any longer. You know full well that I was not interested in resuming this folly of a war in the first place but here we are.”

Anne stayed quiet for a moment, taking her queue from Severus. 

“Lucius, you understand that having this conversation is treason.”

“Threatening my son is higher than any treason,” he replied succinctly. 

Severus turned to Anne for a moment. “Do I tell him?” 

“If you want. It’s up to you, you know him best,” she said nonchalantly. 

Lucius was looking between them, confused. 

“I want a wand oath, that this conversation will never be revealed to anyone,” Severus said in his most serious tone. 

Lucius’ eyebrows raised quickly and he had his wand out at once. 

“I swear that I will not reveal anything we talk about this evening to any party not currently present.”

His wand sparked and he put it away, leaning forward to listen. 

“Lucius, you are aware of my role as spy for the Dark Lord and that I made the Headmaster believe I am a spy on behalf of the Order instead.”

“Yes.”

“That’s not strictly true. I have been a spy for the Order on the Dark Lord since I defected in ‘80.”

Lucius blinked at him, thinking for a beat. 

“You’re a double agent.”

“Yes.”

“You’ve been lying to the Dark Lord this entire time. Since before he disappeared the first time.”

“Yes.”

“I knew you were an exceptional Occlumens but, Severus,” Lucius breathed, pressing his hand to the side of his face. “You’re working with Dumbledore then?” 

“We are,” Severus replied, gesturing to Anne, still surprised. 

“How can I help?” Lucius asked almost immediately. 

“Invite me to tea,” Anne replied at once.

Severus turned his head sharply to look at her. 

“Done. May I ask why?” 

“I’ve got to kill that snake,” she said, and picked up her wine glass again. “And then after that I’m sure I won’t be welcome so I’ll make it count. I think if I poison that pedophile you’re talking about and feet him to the snake she’ll be poisoned too. I would have liked it to be Peter but what do you do? Failing that there’s always fiendfyre.”

“You’re terribly confident for an amateur,” Lucius remarked, unsure. 

“And you’ve never killed anyone before. You don’t know how you’ll react,” Severus reminded her gently. 

“I’m an ‘extra hard to kill’ amateur, and I believe wholly that child molesters deserve the death penalty. If the justice system won’t make it happen I’m happy to oblige,” she muttered, taking another sip. 

Severus sighed, resigned. He was of a mind to agree, but he didn’t want to see his wife become a killer of any sort. 

Lucius watched the emotional exchange with much interest, something dawning in his mind.

“You’re soulmates, aren’t you?” Lucius pronounced finally. “I had my suspicions, Severus of course is not one to open up so quickly. And your mood has improved so drastically in such a short time it’s hardly a surprise. It’s no wonder you didn’t say anything before, if you’re difficult to kill then Severus would be an Achilles heel.” 

Anne watched him from her seat across the sofa, and let Severus assent for her. 

“Have plans for breaking your sister-in-law out of prison been discussed?” she asked, cutting back to the matter at hand. 

“Not at length. We’re waiting for an opening after school starts back to keep Dumbledore and some major players in the Order busy,” Lucius told her reluctantly. 

“And the Prophecy?” she queried. 

“I’ve been asked to head a plan to retrieve it but I must admit I’ve barely begun planning.” 

“Oh good, then you’re not too set on one possible plot then? I have one for you I think will help us all out a little bit.”

“Oh?”

“I’ll deliver it to you.”

Lucius waited for a beat. “That’s it? That’s the plan?”

“That’s the part you need to worry about. I can probably do what needs to be done to retrieve it before anyone notices much, I just need a good opening. This week maybe?” Anne downed the last of the glass. 

“And my alibi for coming across this highly sought after well protected prophecy in a week's time?” he asked incredulously. 

“You happened across some short lived leverage on an Unspeakable within the Department of Mysteries and used it to your advantage.”

“I have some already, not that it would warrant anything that serious,” he admitted. 

“Good.”

Lucius looked to Severus for a long moment. 

“You have confidence in this?”

“I do,” Severus lied.

“Alright. Well, as long as someone does. How soon can I expect to have you over?” 

“We’ll say next Wednesday, if that’s alright?” 

“That’s perfect, actually.”

After Lucius left Severus turned to her, rubbing his temples. 

“Why are you handing over the prophecy to the Dark Lord?” Severus asked finally into the contemplative silence. 

“Well he only knows the first half, and the second half will tell him what he needs to do next to finish his hair brained fantasy of becoming unbeatable and immortal. I want to spur him into action, he’s been resting on his laurels a little too long. He’s got this annoying habit of launching these schemes at the end of school years but I need him to act before it begins.”

“You think he’ll try and kill Potter early,” Severus surmised. 

“I know he will. It’ll be too easy when he tries. And then soon after he’ll be vulnerable to real, permanent death. I discussed it with Albus earlier today before things went awry,” she told him, standing to walk over to the chair he sat in.

“What do you think the consequences of that fight will be?” he asked, reaching out for her where she stood between his legs. 

“Professor McGonnagal said she’d talk to him, so it depends on his reaction to her talk, I suppose.”

“She’s rather good at convincing him of things he should already know.” 

Anne crawled into his lap carefully, getting comfortable with her head tucked beneath Severus' ear. He had his arms wrapped around her, one at her waist and the other 

“That wine is starting to hit me,” she mumbled, snuggling deeper into his embrace. 

“Oh, and it wasn’t before?” he teased. 

“Hmmm,” she hummed at him. 

“You’re such a lightweight,” he muttered endearingly into her hair, kissing her on the temple. “Will I have to carry you to bed?” 

“Only if you call me Mrs. Snape when you do. Nobody ever calls me that,” she said in a light, airy voice, unmoving. 

Severus blinked down at her. 

“You want to be called that?” 

“I want everybody to call me that, it’s my name,” Anne yawned. “I wish people knew we were married sometimes. But I want to keep you all to myself, so it’s not all bad.” 

“That sounds like something I would call you if you were in trouble,” he admitted. 

“Hmmm only if it’s the good kind of trouble,” she teased. “Even if we didn’t get married when we had sex that one time I’d still want to marry you.” 

“Now That is definitely the alcohol talking,” Severus chuckled. 

“Nooo,” she whined, sitting up to look at him. “Don’t do that, you always do that,” she said, big hazel eyes brimming with tears. “I love you so much and you love me back and I feel like the luckiest person in the whole wide world to have you -  _ of course  _ I would marry you again.”

Severus nodded and kissed her gently on the cheek. 

“I’m sorry I made you upset. Do you want to go to bed?” 

“Yes please,” she said, about to get up. 

He put his arm under her legs and one around her back to support her before standing up all at once despite her squeals of protest. 

“You wanted me to carry you up to bed, remember  _ Mrs. Snape _ ,” he purred into her ear. 

Anne giggled madly and hid her blushing face in his neck while he did just that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave kudos and comments if you think it’s been too long since the last chapter posted to remind me to write <3


	7. Quick Change, Quick Change!

Returning to Grimmauld Place during the morning a few days later was a much easier venture than it had been in recent days. Sirius was sulking up in his room and the Headmaster was not to be found so Anne was free to talk to the people she missed, having taken up so thoroughly with her husband. She was exhausted from rolling around in bed alone the night before, Severus was called away just before bedtime, leaving Anne alone with her thoughts. Molly Weasley was happy to see her outside of the bustle of the Order meeting and immediately set to making them tea to talk over. 

“You must tell me, how are you doing?”

“I’ve had my ups and downs. More up than down, thankfully. What about you? I’m sure not being at home is difficult.”

“I do miss sleeping in my own bed,” Molly replied wistfully over her steaming cup of tea. “Really we’ve all be just fine, running the house isn’t too big of a chore. I suppose I’ve been training for it this entire time and hadn’t realized it.”

“You are doing a good job, I don’t know if I’ve said so yet.” 

“Oh now, it’s nothing really,” Molly said bashfully, “this old place could use a fresh coat of - well everything - but it’s hardly a mansion.” 

“How have the kids been doing, holed up here?”

“I’d say they’re doing just fine all things considered. I’m concerned about Harry, he’s been withdrawn this summer. We weren’t expecting to see him so early, originally the Headmaster said we’d see him just after his birthday in August but we’re glad to see him as always.”

Anne nodded, banking that information away for later. 

“My lot are doing well enough, the twins are giving me a time and a half over going back to school and finishing, but I’ve told them I won’t have it any other way if they’re to live under my roof. Hermione is keeping Ginny occupied, I’m glad to see she has a female friend or two. Ronald is doing his best to cheer up Harry, but I’m afraid it’s not going as he’d planned. My eldest three are off in the world working, you know Charlie is a dragonkeeper out in Romania and I get the occasional letter. Bill just moved back to England to work as a curse breaker for Gringotts proper instead of contracting, and Percy is working for the Minister. And your man, how is he?”

Anne smiled at her tone. “Oh you know, lying in the face of death twice weekly. My nerves will not be recovered until after this is all over or I’m dead. We’re doing pretty well other than that.” 

“Have you gotten to the part where it starts to even out yet? Merlin, for the first three months I remember I was so wrapped up in how he was feeling I could hardly think. I was also pregnant and didn’t know it so that didn’t help, of course.” 

“Ah, probably not, no. We’ve got a good system of filtering out the worst of it when it’s a bad idea to be overwrought. I think it’s made us stronger, though, to have absolute proof of the others feelings. Doubt is a hard thing to fight.”

“Oh yes that makes sense, I never have had any fear that Arthur wasn’t being honest with me about his feelings or thought he might be unfaithful. Of course he’s not the sort anyways-“ 

Anne held up a hand, and Molly paused. Severus was in distress sending her a message of confusion and urgency. A soft pop of apparition sounded at the foyer just outside. Anne didn’t recognize the person at first, but then stood in alarm. 

“Wand out, get ready to run or fight,” Anne whispered. 

Molly did just that, standing carefully from her seat, pointing her wand at the doorway. 

Lucius Malfoy, Death Eater robes and all opened the kitchen door of Grimmauld Place, mask in hand, looked at Anne and said “They are coming.” 

Anne’s heart leapt up into her throat and seized her stomach. Her fists clenched and a million thoughts crossed her mind. The other secret keeper was probably dying a painful death as they spoke. 

“I’ll get the kids, alert the Order. I will reach out to you after the dust has settled,” Anne barked to Molly. 

Molly looked stunned, but nodded all the same, and Anne apparated quickly upstairs. 

“Why are you doing this?” she asked, wand still pointed at Malfoy. 

“I have made a grave error in judgment.” 

At that moment he put his mask back on and left through the door, leaving Molly to send her Patronus to Arthur at work, Sirius and Remus upstairs, then Dumbledore and Kingsley. She hoped it would be enough. 

Anne landed upstairs and burst through the bedroom where all of the Weasleys, Granger and Potter sat on their beds talking. More apparating Death Eaters flooded the hall behind her as she closed the door. The sounds of their magic bouncing off the door was deafening. Her heart was pounding madly, fear giving her the adrenaline to do what she needed to do. 

She created a mass of magical force that spread out from her like a viscous liquid, encompassing all of them and their belongings. 

All of the kids tried to talk at once, pulling out their wands but Anne didn’t listen, pulling them all in with a tuck of her arms and apparated out. 

They landed, dirty clothes from the floor and all in her backyard in Cokeworth. 

She was winded and bleeding from her nose and ears when she landed on the ground, and rolled over to lay on her back, magic still pulsing like an invisible raging storm. The house became a fortress of wards while she worked, where it had been only Severus’s deft hand securing the place it now held her own oaths and wards. Noone but herself and Severus could enter or exit the barriers. The alcohol along with other paraphernalia went to the basement, the door to the basement and their bedroom was warded to no other entry, and the house was spotlessly clean. All of the random belongings strewn about the yard floated seamlessly into the trunks they were meant to be in, and the kids clothes and bruises were mended instantly. Inside an extra couch appeared and sat itself up against the bookcases, the layout of the living room widening to accommodate it. 

Anne’s magic lashed out in ghostly flashes, raw and overwhelmed as all of the cuts, scrapes and bruises the children received were healed instantly, and the magical force surrounding her receded back to a thin layer like a second skin, and finally came to a rest. 

Harry Ron and Hermione were the first to approach Anne, Fred and George helping Ginny up a few feet away. 

“Ta-da,” Anne coughed. 

“Where are we?” Hermione asked, helping Anne up off the ground. 

“My house.”

“Professor Snape lives here?” Hermione asked, eyeing the crumbling exterior of the old row house. 

“It’s better on the inside, promise,” Anne chuckled and turned to the twins. “Fred, George, please bring the trunks with us out of the yard.” 

Anne ambled along to the doorway and let them in through the creaky old door into the impeccably clean kitchens. It still smelled of the cake she baked the night before. 

“Molly and Arthur will rendezvous with us as soon as they can, we just have to sit tight until Severus gets back and we’ll figure out what to do.”

“What the hell happened? You just whisked us off without explaining anything,” Harry rounded on her, confused and angry. 

“The other secret keeper for Grimmauld Place was compromised, and I can only assume they’re either dead or wishing for it. Nobody else was home except you six, Molly, Remus and Sirius. I had Molly send a signal to let everyone else know no to go back to the house, and she entrusted me with you all because she knew she couldn’t get to you in time and get all of you out. The Death Eaters were apparating into the hallway as soon as I got to you so there was no time to do anything but act.” 

“So you’ve just saved our lives?” Hermione asked, letting her down easy into a seat at the kitchen table. 

“Why would you do that? What’s in it for you?” Harry grilled her. 

“Harry!” Ginny and Hermione scolded him in unison. 

“What? She’s with Snape, how do we know we can trust her?” Ron piped up. 

Anne was chuckling, grinning. She wiped her face off with a towel. “I’ll have to earn it then. You’re right not to trust anyone just because they tell you to. And there are plenty of things in it for me. The people I care about are at stake, for one. And secondly I’m certainly not heartless enough to leave a bunch of kids at the mercy of fifty Death Eaters high on self righteous madness.” 

“What now?” Hermione asked, signaling the end of that line of questioning. 

“We wait. And eat lunch, it’s almost noon.”

The kitchen came alive behind Fred and George, which barely phased any of the Weasleys but startled Harry and Hermione. 

“You can do all of that wandlessly?” Harry asked, much calmer now that his questions were answered. 

“Mmhmm,” Anne told him, lying her head down on the table for a moment. 

“You know if you’re tired we could probably do it ourselves,” Ginny offered politely. 

“I know but if Severus comes home and finds out that you lot went rifling through the cabinets I’d never hear the end of it,” Anne muttered. 

“Sounds like Snape,” Ron nodded to himself. 

“You can sit in the living room if you want, it’ll be a minute,” Anne told them. 

Everyone except Hermione ambled along into the living room and took over the sofas, starting to talk softly. 

Hermione sat across from Anne and set her chin on her folded hands across the table, watching the stacks of sandwiches form up quietly. 

“You overdid it earlier didn’t you?” 

“I didn’t have breakfast… or a good night's sleep,” Anne yawned. 

“I didn’t think you could bleed,” Hermione muttered under her breath, brows pulled together in thought. 

“Everyone bleeds,” Anne told her drowsily, “even me.”

Once the food was done and a pitcher of lemonade brewed, the food floated lazily through the air into the next room onto the coffee table and Anne followed it in, dragging her feet to Severus favorite armchair. She slumped down into it, and almost immediately fell asleep. Hermione put a throw blanket over her and cast some atmospheric sound deadening charms. 

“Harry I can’t believe you yelled at her,” Hermione rounded on him.

“What, she’s in league with Snape-“

“Oh give it a rest Harry he’s a member of the Order and he acts on behalf of Headmaster Dumbledore, what more do you need as proof?” 

“Well he-“ Ron attempted to interject.

“I don’t want to hear how mean he is to you at school, that’s hardly the plot here,” she fumed. 

“I didn’t think Snape was so bad, really,” George said, looking confused. 

“Yeah the bloke’s nobody's best friend but we’ve learned loads off of him for the shop,” Fred continued. 

“Our year hasn’t had much of a problem with him,” Ginny added.

“Well - whatever,” Harry grumbled and put his arms over his chest defensively. 

“In any case you should at least hold your tongue while we’re waiting here, it won’t do to have you picking a fight with Professor Snape every five minutes while he’s trying to keep us safe.” 

They waited in the living room, and the twins were the only ones who dared to explore. The only rooms they could enter were the loo and the kitchen, everything else appeared to be sealed off by magic far more powerful than their own. They couldn’t go out of the front door, and the backyard was open but they couldn’t disapparate or find any holes in the defenses surrounding them. 

“We’re trapped here,” Geroge told them boredly, shuffling back in. 

“No way in, no way out,” Fred added, flopping gracelessly onto the sofa. 

Hermione looked up from the bookshelf she was perusing. 

“Well at least nobody can get in to hurt us. I fail to see the downside to that.”

“Mum and dad can’t get in that way,” Ron pointed out. 

“I’m sure Professor Snape will bring them along once the coast is clear,” Hermione replied succinctly, picking out a book on the history and application of ancient magical brewing methods. 

Anne stirred slightly in her seat, rolling off to the other side, precariously perched on the edge of the seat cushion. Harry and Ginny were in the backyard throwing a snitch sized ball around for practice in catching. 

It was several hours before anything happened of note, and even that was only Anne finally falling off the chair to curl up in a ball undisturbed on the floor. Hermione tried to get her to wake up but she couldn’t even get close enough, an invisible bubble had formed around the sleeping woman to protect her. 

Finally, as the house was getting almost too dark to see in a brilliant flash of silver entered to reveal two patronuses. A weasel and a doe appeared, the weasel speaking first. 

“Darlings we’re on our way, please have the doorway cleared.”

Then the doe began, Severus’ voice resonating through the room, shocking some of the teens. 

“Anne, please take down part of your warding so we might enter, it’s too thick to break through.”

Annes head popped up immediately after hearing her husband's voice, and blinked wildly at the patronus. It was a whitetail doe. 

Groggily she picked through the wards to find what he meant. She had done them as she meant to, but in her haste she hadn’t allowed for him to bring guests along. Once she took it down she slumped down again, still not fully recovered. 

Severus was frantic when he returned to the house, bursting through the front door. He didn’t pause at the sight of six of his students standing in his living room, but rushed instead to his wife who was still half asleep on the floor. He knelt down and picked her up to sit her up properly on his armchair. She smiled up at him softly, hands reaching for his cheek while the bond repaired her magic more firmly, his emotions mollified by her presence. 

Arthur and Molly had followed suit in apparition, and embraced their children once they were cleared by the wards. 

“Oh I’m so glad you’re all safe,” Molly cried, taking Ginny and Harry both in one go once they came back inside. 

“Yes, the Order house is compromised and we couldn’t go back to the Burrow in case they were watching, but Severus found us quick enough after and got everything squared away. We’re going to have to split up for a bit until we can get the house secured, so Fred and George you’ll be staying in London at Bill's flat. We’ve gone ahead and made sure he’s set up for it. Ginny you’ll come with us to Percy’s, he’s got a big enough second room to suit,” Arthur told them.

“What about the three of us?” Ron asked in confusion.

“Ron, you Harry and Hermione will stay here. Headmaster Dumbledore tested the wards himself just before we came by, it's the best safehouse we have on such short notice; Professor Snape was kind enough to acquiesce and it will only be for a short while.”

Harry was too speechless to explode as Anne was expecting him to. He just nodded and sat down, shocked. 

Ron opened his mouth to argue, but Mrs. Weasley cut him off. 

“You will all be on your best behavior. This is a massive imposition on the Snapes and you should all be thankful that you’re not stuffed in with everyone else like sardines on such short notice. We hope to have a better plan by the end of the week but Arthur is still expected to go on that expedition for work and I have to care for Great Aunt Muriel while she’s ill so this is our best bet to make anyone on the outside believe we weren’t affected by the break-in. We have to keep up appearances and give no reason for Arthur to be fired from work.” 

Anne made to stand up but Severus pressed her back into the armchair with a hand on her shoulder. 

“ _ You _ are going to rest,” he told her firmly. “I’ll take care of the rest. You’ve done more than enough for today.”

“I’m fine, Severus, really,” Anne protested. 

“Do you think me incapable of entertaining guests in my own home?” he asked, a small smile on his mouth where no one else in the room could see. 

Anne sighed and relented. “Will you be good?” 

“For you? I’ll think about it.”

He sood then and turned to the Weasleys, face set in his usual public indifference. “Will you require a wand oath fir the safe return of your offspring?”

Arthur laughed. “No, no Severus I daresay your word will suffice. We’ll be off then, and again I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality towards my family.” 

They shook hands, and the Weasleys departed, leaving a final silence to the house for a long drawn out moment. Severus turned on the trio, face inscrutable. 

“Fianlly, we can get down to business.”


End file.
